Are we not all Tribalists

Are we not all Tribalists

By Mas Damisa

Until a research is conducted by whosoever will, I make bold to assert that Nigerians have the shortest memory among humans and if not then they are about the most presumptuous. I am as guilty as anyone else, and here is how. The person who named the country is herself not a Nigerian as no one was a Nigerian until she did so and though, no effort was made to obtain our consent yet, we all assumed that we are Nigerians. We assume that Nigeria is a nation and yet, Nigeria has no properties of nationhood. A nation is a people united by common descent, culture or language and inhabiting a particular territory or state. Does Nigeria answer to this description of a nation? A nation is not so called just because it is a sovereign state; and so any country whose only factor of nationhood is a common territory is only a pseudo-nation or at best, a geographical expression. Instead of one language, we have over 300, instead of one culture we have hundreds, instead of one territory, we have an amalgamated territory; rather than having common descent, we have hundreds. And so, where is the Nigerian nation? The lingua franca of English is a borrowed or rather, an imposed language, and not one of our own. What do you call a so-called nation which is not united by common descent, culture and a native language common to it? Are we not more known abroad as Nigerians and by foreigners? When twenty Nigerians from twenty ethnic groups meets in London, with what language do they communicate? If they communicate in English, are they Englanders or Londoners? These twenty Nigerians are neither united in Nigeria nor in London as they have nothing in common except their humanity. When they arrive Nigeria, they will continue their communication in English devoid of any feature of commonality. Which is why Nigerians have little or no sense of nationalism and with very few nationalists?
All calls to patriotism is hollow as we don’t have a nation to pledge loyalty to. So all pretends at patriotism to Nigeria is empty and has no basis. Is that not why public office holders pays little or no regard to their oath of allegiance? We have a geographical space that accommodates all of us, that is all there is about Nigeria; and we were forced to remain together not by necessity or by choice but by brute force. That force was reinforced by the Civil War, which has failed woefully to unite us a nation. We live a lie as a nation but exist in reality as a country where everyone clings to his ethnic nationality although we make it an article of faith to deny it. And we carried this denial to the ridiculous level of refusing to mention or show case our ethnic nationalities in our Constitution.
Again, the Constitution we claim to be our own is not ours as no one saw it before it was imposed on us in 1999. Even now, there is supposed to be an on-going process of amendments to the Constitution. But making laws is one thing, making a Constitution is another. A Constituent Assembly is superior to and different from a Legislature in the business of constitution making. Those pretending to represent us at the National Assembly at the moment are products of a deeply flawed election and are therefore holding on to an illegitimate mandate. If the mandate is illegitimate, then all laws or amendments made are not derived from our consent and so, are worse than illegality. Any wonder why public functionaries obeyed our Constitution more in the breech than in adherence.
The hundreds of ethnic nationalities which our Constitution refused to recognize or accommodate are superior to the artificial and arbitrary States and Local Councils listed in the 1999 Constitution. A ethnic nation is a group of people having a common national or cultural tradition and denoting origin by birth or descent rather than by present nation-state. Rather than these ethnic nationalities being the building blocks and serving as the Federating Units of the country, we created structures called states which lack the ingredients of a state. It is amusing therefore to hear one Nigerian calling another ethnic bigot or a tribalist, or a Nigerian claiming to be detribalized. Yet, there is no Nigerian who is not from one tribe or ethnic group or the other, but they all pretend about it even though it exudes all they do or stand for in practical terms.
A tribe is a social division in a traditional society, consisting of related or linked families or communities with a common culture and dialect. It is not a crime to own up to your tribe and how do you commit crime of a tribalist in a country that lacks nationhood? Do you now see when one tribal jingoist is calling another an ethnic bigot, all there is to do is laugh your heart out? We are all tribal and ethnic citizens in the polygeny called Nigeria and we should stop pretending about it! Some people pretend that they are higher and above their ethnic nations yet add no value to the country in any shape or form. Why? Because his assumed high culture has found no application or expression except in the small circle of his tribesmen.
The 36 states as they exist lacks a common culture and in many cases, lacks a common language. Yet the ethnic nationalities has their distinct culture and language; they have distinct customs, institutions and achievement and many are numerically strong enough to be entirely independent if they so choose. The trouble with Nigeria which expresses itself in our political interplay is that we have involuntarily been forced to bury our differences without first of all, creating mutually acceptable alternative to fill the vacuum. The ethnic nations and tribes have refused to vanish because we have had no viable replacement. Our languages have refused to die because English is not our language and therefore is not an alternative. As English – Nigerians, we are neither here nor there. No one respects you just because you speak English. If you are Nigerian, what is your language? We have refused to turn what looks like a liability now into an asset. Our diversities that would have been a source of strength have become a deathly weakness. All ethnic nations are territorial as well but here in Nigeria, ownership of land is transferred to the state, leaving the land owners suspended in the air.
What can we do to build a nation to which we can belong, or to be loyal and patriotic to the country? How do we get united inspite of our different tongues and tribes? Why are we afraid to discuss and examine our differences? Kindly answer these questions before you call me or the next person a tribalist. For now, are we not all tribalists?