Although this statement of Chief Awolowo is often unquestioningly used to suggest that there are no "Nigerian", it is noteworthy that the statement itself is analytically problematic.
The "English" and "Welsh" if one is to use the language of colonizers were tribes within the British nation state.
2. It is not clear why Awolowo expected "Nigerians" to exist in a colonial territory which the British did not set out to create as a nation or believe could ever be a nation.
3. Therefore apart from of its"quotabiity" and attraction to people who refuse to think beyond the words of secular deities, its counter-posing of "English" and Welsh" with Nigerians instead of with the "Yoruba" and "Hausa" is basically analytically defective. Those are the comparable analytical units.
4. In terms of the progress of the Nigerian nation project, apart from a small minority of Nigerians who need sectionalism for comfort and trade and thrive and are committed against the Nihgerian nation project, I believe that contemporary Nigerians from all walks of life including farmers, traders, truck drivers, food merchants, cattle herders, business people, laborers, labor activists, workers, intellectuals, bureaucrats, and politicans who by the action of traversing the country to do their business are infact making the Nigerian nation.
5. It is only people who ignore the lives, experiences and interactions of the vast majority of Nigerians in their daily lives that can ignore the evolutionary growth of Nigerianity.
6. In fact in a conceptually and psychologically autonomous Nigerian social science, the study of ALL FORMS of routine interaction among Nigerians across Nigeria and not just spectacular conflicts would be an entire field of study that would yield deeper understanding of how people actually live together , agree, disagree and resolve and continue routine interactions.
7. Aided by the vast if still inadequate national infrastructure of roads, airports, oil and gas pipelines and soon inter state water ways and revived railroads, the Nigerian national project is very much on course.
8. This process as a historical evolution inevitably throws up severe conflicts and destructive encounters among groups. This is what leadership is about to confront, manage and reduce their frequency and eventual their occurence. But even seeking how to do this is part of nation-building. Despite the import substitution mentality post-colonial Africans, there is no ready made blue print for creating political cultures. Each political culture is inherently sui generis and is the outcome of conflict, and resolutions and the eventual arrival of functional conflict management mechanisms established by the given society.
9. It would be ideal if the Nigerian nation would come of age in our life time, but even if we are not satisfied with where we are, we should not minimize and diminish the what our peoples efforts have so far brought forth and continue to be developed.
10. The sometimes common prescription for division and separation as solutions to me would be an indictment of Nigerians and Africans of the contemporary era. After all our ancestors built complex and sometimes muitliethnic empires, kingdoms and states that have lasted for hundreds if not thousands of years. If they did not develop the grit, commitment and patience the empires that we celebrate today would not have come into being.
11. Finally it would be an interesting intellectually project to find out why Nigerians abroad of whatever ethnicity are easily identified by non-Nigerians as Nigerians first before they try enquire about one's Nigerian ethnicity.
12. It may be that despite the preference of some Nigerians to set up a fictive conflict beween one's ethnicity and Nigerianness, that infact there must be some common traits and tendencies which have evolved and are acquired and expreesesd by Nigerians inspite of themselves.
13. In fact one can boldly assert there is a Nigerianess that has evolved that is not a peculair attribute of any specific Nigerian ethnic group. It is a complex compound and admixture of the tendencies from the various groups the has been forged into something uniquely Nigerian.
14. It is necessary to be conscious of how far the Nigerian project has advanced, its continuing challenges and the formulation of creative sui generis resolutions rather than constantly invoking old and dubious views of past leaders. Thinking and reflection cannot stop merely because of some quotable views of post humously anointed secular sages.
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