Chidi,
I'm writing and saving this response under the titel "Chidi and the Holy Naija Constitution"
It's alright being logical and wise, alright telling us profound , self-evident truths about the nation state, the modern nation state or even global post-modernity, alright pontificating about "constitutionality" ( go tell that to Boko Haram or your Fulani Herdsman) it makes perfect sense to pontificate about your constitution superseding the constitutions of cattle cultures, but what would you say if the majority rule Federal Law enforcement suddenly outlawed the hitherto lawful and law abiding annual Yam Festival on the grounds that it was "unlawful public assembly" - a cultural cover for IPOB or MASSOB to hold their political conventions? (Just joking )
Another controversial term : Nigerian National Poet. Is there one? Are you?
I was looking for any rival to Yehuda Amichai so I typed this search term : Israel National poet.
See what I got !
Chidi Opara, blazing like Dante's inferno
never fails to set Collins off on a tangent.
What he says here should be particularly true of e.g. Nigeria, a vast territorial conglomerate of peoples, nations, languages, ethnicities, music, cultures, hairstyles, dance, lifestyles and all kinds of religion by mutual consent all agreed or disagreed that they shall live together as one country in peace and harmony, agreed or disagreed on how to be governed, all held together at the centre (Abuja) by willingly or unwillingly submitting to be covered by the Federal constitutional umbrella...
On the whole, this is particularly true, even if the vast but carefully woven carpet is uneven in parts ranging from riverine areas in which oil and fish co-exist, lush vegetation heartlands from which cattle derive their nourishment, the powerful Naija nation a globe unto itself, bursting at the seams it seems, let no man have a monopoly on his vision of paradise, Boko Haram terrorism in the North-east yearning to be free, aspirants to what was briefly Biafra, the dream does not fade away, simultaneously Oduduwa wants to balance the equation – and why not - it could be two systems ,one county ( for Sierra Leone's SLPP the motto is "One Country, One people" - in Apartheid South Africa the PAC motto was "one bullet , one settler") so far in Nigeria, all one does not hear about or see is the resurrection of the old Sokoto Caliphate to the North-west of the Federation, neither the Naija dog nor the baboon but the Delta Avengers, Mujahid Dokubo and the Jonathanareans to the South rearing their beautiful heads, they too want to be like Kuwait.
Unlike the 613 Commandments or the Sharia , the magic of the man-made Nigerian Constitution is that it can always be more finely tuned, adjusted as need may be , to hold the nation together, the whole bigger than its parts, so that things do not fall apart or explode - disintegrate through violence, on the contrary , so that Nigeria becomes truly great , forever...
On Tuesday, 11 September 2018 09:43:45 UTC+2, Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM wrote:
We should be careful in our unnecessary quest to elevate cultural dictates above constitutionality in a modern nation state or in an aspiring modern nation state.Modern nation states run on constitutionality, which the ethnic nationalities that make up the nation state, had agreed, by virtue of their joining the nation state, that its dictates will supersede the dictates of their culture.CAO.
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