When the Awolowo interview on the Biafra war and the methods used in that war surfaced on this forum, I read the transcript as someone who knew close to nothing about the war. I I was born three years after the war ended. However, I wasn't at all surprised at the deluge of responses that trailed that transcript and the commentaries on Achebe's book and essay in The Guardian. If people had shrugged at those two issues, then there must be hope for Nigeria!
Yet, people could not have shrugged them off. The civil war and Awolowo's and Achebe's perceptions of it are significant to the survival of Nigeria as a tormented country. And the host of replies and responses have been enlightening. We've heard from igbos and the claim of being the most significant tribe in Nigeria. Yorubas have equally weighed in their opinion of Awolowo and his percieved good heart. We have even heard from Ibibios and the bitter lessons they have learnt on how not to trust in Nigeria!
What has been troubling for me, however, is another thread in the discourse which has been counseling ending the entire debate for many reasons. Some are disgusted by the potential for the disruption of friendship, others by the sheer magnitude of hatred and pent up fury flying across this cyber-forum. Still others are concerned about the binary opposition of ethnicities that has invaded the discourse. The question however still is: In spite of all these, why should people pretend that all is well, and move on with their lives? Shouldn't the time have come for the entire charade called Nigeria to blow up? And why are we at all surprised that the discourse is taking this shape, that ethnic rivalry is still alive and kicking in Naija?
Since our flag independence fifty two years ago, Nigeria has been managing the mechanical unity it imposed on its unyielding diversity with no success. The war and many other events till date are the result of the failure of that 'unity'. We have all also seen the failure of the NYSC and the quota system. And hence the inability of the Nigerian state to achieve national integration after 52 years of statehood. All plural states are confronted with that imperative of integration. Only few states have succeeded in transforming their diversity into national synergy. Nigeria certainly has not achieved that good fortune!
What does this tell us? A simple but neglected truth: Nigeria's future cannot be divorced from the ethnocentric prejudices of the ethnic diversities making up the Nigerian state.
Every human is born ethnocentric. It is an undeniable part of our human condition. In fact, our humanity and the vicissitudes of the universe is mediated by specific ethnos. Our desire to be cosmopolitan (or 'detribalise' as we say in Nigeria) most of the time deride this condition of our existence. In Nigeria, we could read our collective failure as a state as an instance of the leadership's attempt to ignore our ethnocentric situation and. Play the ostrich through series of funny 'national' policies meant to exorcise the genie of ethnicity. Yet, that genie had been out of the bottle for a while! It traumatised us between 1967 and 1970 and recently is bombing us silly.
I have not read Achebe's notorious book yet, but I believe I have the capacity to extrapolate from The Trouble with Nigeria as well as other interventions of the literary icon over the years. It seems to me that Achebe has equally been worried about why the quest for nationhood has consistently hit the rock in Nigeria. And, this is the catch, there is no other way by which Achebe could come at that trouble (or, at the manifestation of national failure instantiated in the Biafra war) except from an ethnic perspective. As far as I am concerned, no one has that archimedean standpoint. This is a position that is even most poignant given our historical situation as a country. Wouldn't Awolowo still have been in the eye of the storm if he had been, say, a Kanuri or an Itshekiri? Would the effect of whatevber strategy he advocated not been the same?
Further questions: Isn't it time to confront the albatross of the civil war and all it meant within the trajectory of statehood in Nigeria? Isn't it better to allow all the pent up furies a cathartic space for release? If every ethnic reasons and arrogance and reservations are allowed to roam the public sphere, wouldn't that allow for a reasonale assessment of our biases and prejudices, and hence make for a therapeutic reassessment?
If Nigeria must move forward, then it must allow for a cacophony of ethnic voices to speak their grievances without the arrogance of a 'detribalised objectivity'. That is the significance of Achebe's book for me. I am surprised people see him as being prejudiced. Of course, we all are! It is only through debate and confrontations that we can ever hope to arrive at what Georg Gadamer, the German philosopher, called the 'fusion of horizons' mediated by our collective resolve to speak and allow others their opinions too. Achebe has contributed an opinion within the conflicted space of discourse. That opinion must be dissected and assessed. Then others must contribute their own too with the same result.
The public sphere in Nigeria is one that has operated, for a while now, under the framework of tolerance. If another war were to happen right now, I fear for our 'objectivity'. We should remember the horror of Rwanda! What is needed, according to Charles Taylor, the American philosopher, is the transition from tolerance to recognition. You only tolerate what you can't stand! Yet, recognition requires two significant principles:
A. First, that the person I am relating with is different from me. In relating with me, s/he must necessarily relate from an ethnic perspective.
B. Second, that the person shares the same humanity with me. Our collective humanity offers a way out of the problems our ethnocentric condition may generate.
The Nigerian civil war had happened. But we have not confronted its consequences. We have been stupidly quiet about it. The Nigerian governments thought it was national wisdom to wrap it up. And we wonder why national integration had not happened! I'm surprised someone thought it had even happened for the igbos! And the reason is that they have status and governmental visibility! Ah! Of course, the South south have equally been integrated. wasn't that region offered the post of the Secretary to the Federal Government? National integration goes beyond mere visibility of any ethnic personality on the national landscape. If I ascend any professional height, I did it solely on my individual and even ethnic capacity. Or, through the patrimonial political opportunity afforded by the fact that I have a family or a friend in government. This doesn't imply that I love Nigeria or that she has provided the opportunity for progress for me. On the contrary, integration involves the ability of the Nigerian state to generate a feeling or sense of belonging that would necessitate the transference of ethnic loyalty to the Nigerian state. It is only then that nationhood would be born in Nigeria. As it is now, Nigeria is a mere contraption of nationalities and ethnicities. Integration has not happened for any group and subgroups. The ferocious tone of the debate around Awo and Achebe is a demonstration of that.
Integration translate into a fusion of ethnic energies. I cannot cease being a Yoruba just as you must remain Ibo (or Hausa, Efik, Edo, Kilba, etc). However, for Nigeria to succeed, it must make it possible for me to remain who I am; it must give me reason to transfer my ethnocentric allegiance to the national framework without losing myself in the process.
Adeshina Afolayan
Sent from my BlackBerry wireless device from MTN
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