i recently finished geschiere's The Perils of Belonging where he describes the situations in Cameroon, and the Netherlands, where much of what you described below could have been written about those two countries (especially cameroon), if you just changed the names.
the argument he makes is that since SAPs and the new economic neoliberal order has led to a readjustment of the relationship between national power and local power, in favor of the latter, this has led to a heightened degree of autochthony as a guiding political principle.
in a period where the xenophobes are winning in europe, where trump wants to stop muslim migration to the u.s, and where the people of the street have received his proposal happily, we are surely in a new age.
if a non-nigerian were to step back--and without knowing the details of the country as well as the indigenous people, without being partial to one ethnicity over another--and view the situation you describe from another planet, the first question he or she would have to ask is, why is this happened there and at this time.
geschiere has his answer. yours seems to imply that the govt has a choice in stopping these events; but what if it were weaker than that (which the existence and extent of boko haram seems to imply), what if the govt is subject to pressures which limits its ability to act?
just asking
ken
--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> on behalf of Nimi Wariboko <nimiwari@msn.com>
Sent: Tuesday, December 8, 2015 12:28 AM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Moderator's CautionDear 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> 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)
http://sites.utexas.edu/yoruba-studies-review/
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http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa <http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa>
http://groups.google.com/group/yorubaaffairs <http://groups.google.com/group/yorubaaffairs>
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