Dear Obi:
Let me begin by thanking you for responding to my post of yesterday. The questions you are asking me suggest your openness to finding reasonable solutions to the problems of citizenship and national identity in Nigeria. The pain of injustice that filters out from the facts you stated clearly shows how the Nigerian state attacks its own citizens and the individual is alienated from the state. The state which has refused to recognize the worth or citizenship of Nigerians have steadily attacked its own people. Indeed, as Professor Peter Ekeh informed us, in Nigeria state and society have drifted apart; starting in the era of slave trade, intensified by colonialism, and exacerbated by post-independence politics. The terms of exchange between the state and the individual are clearly ill-defined.
I do not think any reasonable Nigerian rejoices at the pain that a large number of Igbo feel based on the issues you have raised. Indeed, no group of individuals is totally exempt from the attack on their citizenship and personhood by the rapacious Nigerian state. All of us as citizens have been ill-treated by the state and I say this not to devalue any Igbo sense of deprivation, but to call us to work through this problem together. It might be the Igbo who feel alienated today, but tomorrow it might be Ijo, Kanuri, Hausa, or Yoruba. It will be a monumental failure of Nigerian intellectuals and leaders to see a problem that affects any group as limited to that group.
I have read what Professors John Mbaku, Kenneth Harrow, and others have written in response to the questions you asked me. I am grateful to them for making my job easier. Let me also offer my opinion on the philosophical planks that might go into building a model of national coexistence that will foster a sense of belonging. This is only going to be a sketch. I will only state four of the planks; three are closely related and one is a wildcat. First, we need to recognize that the state building project in Nigeria has failed or at least it is not serving the interests of all Nigerians. We need to redefine the polity and the terms of engagement so that the state and the society will be well articulated. This work will be done at the level of institutions; building strong institutions that can deliver services and also hold leaders and functionaries accountable to the people. Second, at the individual level, we will need to put in place the virtues and capabilities that every Nigerian must have in order to be all that he or she can be. The goal is to create a society where all Nigerians will flourish, be their best irrespective of their ethnic origins. Third, we need to generate (or gather) the values and norms that as a country we should foster and promote in order to create the appropriate polity and effective citizens’ functioning for economic and political development.
These suggestions might not be specific enough for you, and they are deliberately so. The project of giving every Nigeria a sense of belonging is one that we all need to embark upon. On this forum we have some of the best brains in Nigeria, Africa, and the world. We can generate a document to spark debates in Nigeria or to guide public policy. Of course, I realize that producing another document will not necessarily solve Nigeria’s problems. I also know that nation building is a constant task and we have to improvise our ways toward the optimum (but not once-for-all) solution. We should not lose hope in the state building project. The pains of today are real, but the hope of a glorious Nigeria tomorrow invites the best from us today.
Here is the wildcat idea. Give every group the option of exiting from the polity through a referendum. Let us write into the constitution that every 25 or 50 years any group or collectivity can decide to leave the union. Its members will vote and if there is a two-third majority that supports exiting from the union, the others will let then go in peace. Meanwhile, let us all work hard to make the union excel and if at the end of 25 or 50 years, a group is still aggrieved enough to want to leave the others will let them go. Perhaps, knowing that there is an exit strategy might make some groups to feel that they are not doomed to stay within Nigeria forever. We need to let aggrieved groups or collectivities know that others will not put undue obstacle on their path to paradise. Let every group has the democratic “option” to buy or sell its membership in the union.
Personally, I want Nigeria to stand as it is today. All groups are relevant and important for the realization of the potentials of the country. I believe in a united Nigeria. I do not think that fragmentation or succession is the solution. If we do not properly define the terms of exchange between the state, society, and individuals, then we are only transferring the problem from a bigger pot to small one when we fragment.
Obi, I hope this is helpful.
Nimi Wariboko
Boston University
On 12/8/15 3:18 PM, Rex Marinus wrote:
Dear Nimi, may I just ask a question: what do you suggest to be the model that should make "coexistence" of all groups in Nigeria possible and less antagonistic? You talk about giving her citizens a "sense of equal belonging," and I totally agree with you. But what is equal belonging if we have built into that worldview, at the highest level of policy, the notion that people are "alien" in their own country? A governor stages the "deportation" of citizens of the same country, and it goes without consequence; another sacks all "non-indigenes" from state service, and there is little protection by the federal government, and Lagos state imposes selective taxation on its Igbo residents, and it is called justice; people burn shops belonging to Nigerians in Kano, or Kano state destroys trailer loads of alcoholic beverage belonging businessmen from other parts of Nigeria, and nothing happen; a child from one part of the country is prevented from attaining his/her dream because s/he comes from the wrong end of the geography, and it is called "quota." In actual fact, the federal government of Nigeria has routinely failed to protect people from the excesses of people who have been "goaded" on to acts great injustice by "public intellectuals" who justify these , and have managed to turn infamy into polite culture, or at least some pretense of that. Not too long ago, FAS put the OPC on the list of terrorist groups. Once, OPC had declared Yoruba secession, and its willingness to use violent means to accomplish it. Dr. Aluko led a loud protestation to FAS and caused it o remove OPC from that list. But today, he wants Nnamdi Kanu tried and hanged, just on the strength of statements attributed to him in a meeting in the USA, and for which those in the meeting put him to task. Social justice never happens when we keep convenient silence in order not to be seen as offensive. We need always to hold each other accountable otherwise we shall keeping going to well, as the poet Okigbo says, until we smash all our calabashes.
Obi Nwakanma
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> <mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Nimi Wariboko <nimiwari@msn.com> <mailto:nimiwari@msn.com>
Sent: Tuesday, December 8, 2015 12:28 AM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Moderator's Caution
Dear All:
I join Professor Falola to urge caution. I have followed the debates with keen interest and I want to say that the issues at stake are too important for us not to treat with caution. Let us try to understand where people are coming from and seek ways of resolving the tension. The country Nigeria belongs to all of us and we must all endeavor to give all her citizens a sense of equal belonging, even as we urge the government to protect its sovereignty. Many of us, not all, need to rise above deeply rooted ethnic rivalry and antagonism to search for a better model of coexistence of all groups and a robust framework of social justice in the country. In such a time as this, we cannot afford to let down our beloved country. Thanks.
Nimi Wariboko
Walter G. Muelder Professor of Social Ethics
Boston University
On 12/7/15, 7:09 PM, "Toyin Falola" <toyinfalola@austin.utexas.edu <mailto:toyinfalola@austin.utexas.edu> > wrote:
The debate on Biafra may by sliding out of control, yet it is a debate worth having at this historic juncture. As I have said before, any debate that leads to the loss of innocent lives is irresponsible. I cannot close an open debate that moves a nation forward, but at the same time, I don’t want to be insensitive to the consequences on the lives of people. Our country is very fragile and I want all parties to carefully weigh their words and utterances, even as we all commit ourselves to justice for all citizens, living in peace and harmony with one another, and also to protect the country we inherited from our fathers and mothers. Exercise caution. You and I must seek ways to diffuse the growing tension and not exacerbate it. When mobs arise, there is nothing you can do in your locations, and you will go to work and eat your food, while others carry corpses.--
Toyin Falola
Department of History
The University of Texas at Austin
104 Inner Campus Drive
Austin, TX 78712-0220
USA
512 475 7224
512 475 7222 (fax)
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