January 1, 2014 – about three years from today – will mark one hundred years since the Northern and Southern Protectorates of Nigeria were amalgamated to form what is today the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
January 1, 2014 – about three years from today – will mark one hundred years since the Northern and Southern Protectorates of Nigeria were amalgamated to form what is today the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Sadly, almost a century after that merger, Nigeria still remains essentially two separate countries welded precariously into one. In this short piece, I argue that unless steps are taken to perfect that amalgamation, the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as currently configured) can hardly make any meaningful progress.
To be sure, there are at least three hundred ethnic nationalities in Nigeria almost evenly spread across the landmass of the country. In the old Northern Region dominated by the Hausa/Fulani, very many ethnic minorities exist, many of whom do not as much as understand the Hausa language. The same is true of the old Eastern and Western regions, both of which constitute the former Southern Protectorate. Across the country, many of these ethnic groups are as similar to each other as the French are to the Chinese. However, as divided as Nigeria is by virtue of its breathtaking plurality, there is no other dimension of division as strong as the North-South dichotomy.
This sense of dichotomy is not a recent phenomenon. History books document that when in 1953 the late Anthony Enahoro moved the historic motion for Nigeria’s self-governance, it was widely supported by the southern parliamentarians (the Western and Eastern Regions) and opposed largely by the North. The January 15, 1966 coup, which swept away the First Republic, was also perceived as a southern (particularly eastern) ploy against the north. The counter-coup that followed was essentially motivated by a desire to get even. And to a large extent, an undercurrent of liberation from repression may have fanned the dastardly Civil War, which started one year later. In recent times, the north-south dichotomy has one of its clearest expressions in the clamor for the exclusive right of the North to produce the next president. And the division is not about to abate.
What is particularly disturbing is how little Nigerians from either side of the divide relate with or know about the other part of the country. For example, on Facebook, most Nigerians’ friend lists are stuffed overwhelmingly with people from only one half of the country. Most young people from the South think of all northerners as Hausas (generally called “mallams” or “aboki”).
Many Hausas think of everyone from the old Eastern Region as Igbo, even when you insist you are not. Many people from each side have not crossed to the other side of the divide, in some cases out of paranoia. Many grow old and die without doing so. For a child growing up in the south, the first contact with the north is likely to be with shoe cobblers, nail trimmers, water vendors, herdsmen and petty road-side shop keepers. That is, apart from the very wealthy babariga-brandishing politicians on TV. It is so easy then to grow up in the south with the image of a poverty-stricken north etched in one’s brain. And many young ordinary northern kids, I imagine, are most likely to have had their first ‘southern’ contact with the ubiquitous Igbo trader and his family, and TV images from Nollywood full of America-fond mostly-southern movie stars.
When confronted with a little more exposure we realize how much ignorance we’ve been wallowing in. A friend of mine recently got posted to Katsina for the mandatory youth service. She is so full of admiration for the simple ways of her hosts, the very clean streets and the more humane existence than she experienced in Lagos and some parts of the East. Another friend from Kaduna impressed me terribly by his eloquence and brilliance when we met at the Nigerian Law School. Though he’s not Hausa, most of us branded him one because he had to be if he hailed from Kaduna. Another one from Bauchi, with whom I later studied is one of the most brilliant young Nigerian minds I have met. And the list is endless. Fortunately, I hail from the South-South, studied in the East and the North, and worked in the Southwest. Because not many young Nigerians follow a similar trajectory, many remain in the regional closet by no fault of theirs. This should not be so.
There is a lot the government can do to weld the two “Nigerias” into one and create the much-needed common sense of nationhood in all of us. The National Youth Service Scheme (NYSC), before it was terribly abused, was one such scheme. It enabled (and I mean the past tense seriously) people from one region to do community service in a region different from theirs, mostly across the north-south divide. Unfortunately, these days, only those who are thoroughly helpless or who, though powerful, do not mind, get posted to undesirable places. Also, because violence of all kinds has virtually become a recurring decimal in some parts of the country, fewer people are willing to go on national adventures. Even worse, there are concerns about the employment advantages the service year gives to people from otherwise arid locations. For example, by the time a Port Harcourt resident returns home from national service in a remote village close to the border, the “corpers” who served in the oil companies have already stayed back to take up the few available spaces. All of these have defeated the NYSC’s objectives.
The actual amalgamation of northern and southern Nigeria requires conscious effort on the part of the federal government. One good step might be to require federal schools to retain a certain quota for student applicants and lecturers from the other half of the country. That way, I would not study law for five years in a class of over 400 with only three Yoruba’s and no Hausa, simply because the school is located in the South-East.
Similarly, as widely condemned as it is, the NYSC could be restructured and put to better uses. One way to do it might be to make the service year part of undergraduate training, but one year before graduation. That way, the competitive disadvantages that people suffer because of where they served should disappear. Of course that also assumes the government would take bolder steps against religious bigotry and mindless killings in some parts of the country. Also, the curriculum especially at secondary and primary school levels should be overhauled to teach more about other parts of Nigeria. And all schools could be encouraged to organize trips to, and exchange programs with, the other half of the country. One more thing: can we think more seriously about conferring benefits accruing to “indigenes” at state level primarily on the basis of where one is born or has lived instead of just where your great-grandparents migrated from.
This write-up is based on the assumption that there is a national consensus to keep Nigeria as one indivisible and indissoluble nation. I believe we are better off as one large, diverse and resource-endowed country. Some disagree. True, some northerners are “so different” from most southerners, but so too are many southern peoples from one another. The present generation of Nigerians will have to erase the mentality of a north-south divide. Of course there will always be the need to strike some kind of balance in a plural system such as ours. However, any crusade hinged on “North versus South” only keeps alive the ghost of Lord Lugard and pushes further away the Nigeria of our dreams. Even worse, it keeps us from pursuing a merit-driven agenda for the common good.
Gomiluk may be reached at: [email protected]
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