RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - FW: The Story of Nigeria

Dear Prof.,  The question I will like to pose is WHAT IS A NATION. Or what is a nation to an average Nigerian? If we do not know what the term means in our different local tongues and the institutions did a poor job in attending to that aspect of our education. Do we know what a nation means apart from the STATE or the geographical entity we are told is country. The former national anthem made reference to tribes and tongues but does the new one tell us about what a nation is? It speaks about Fatherland and then ends with "to serve with hearts and mind one nation bound in freedom, faith and unity" So how can we as citizens make sense and meaning about this anthem. Is there any class on National Anthem 101, is this taught in schools, if yes what is really taught. Prof., I want to be a Nigerian but I confess I do not know what it means since there is no one truly National Newspaper that reflects our collective aspirations and works on bringing us together. Dare I submit that the press in Nigeria is very ethnic in orientation and the NTA is incapable of selling the national agenda. Please correct me if I have a flawed imagination of the reality. Thanks Prof --- On Thu, 2/24/11, Folu Ogundimu <ogundimu@msu.edu> wrote: From: Folu Ogundimu <> Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - FW: The Story of Nigeria To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com Date: Thursday, February 24, 2011, 3:22 PM Very interesting read, thanks for sharing. Sanusi is certainly right on one score, the post-independence generation of Nigerians has failed to transform into being Nigerians. The attachment to primordial ethnic and regional identities is still very strong. Writing about Nigerian nationalism in 1958, James Coleman says of the 1920's that:   "The tendency to think of nationality in terms of race or tribe, rather than in terms of an artificial territorial unit under British control, was characteristic of the early exponents of nationalism...The British themselves did little if anything to encourage the feeling of "Nigerian" nationality; indeed, Sir Hugh Clifford made it emphatically clear that the idea of a Nigerian nation was both inconceivable and dangerous." [Coleman, 1958:210].   Until the middle 1930's, people tended to think of themselves in terms of natal origins, e.g. "Calabari," "Egba," "Ijebu," or regional and pan-regional identity such as "Yorubaland" or "West Africa." So, it is ironic that in 2011 the politics of state construction in Nigeria is still rooted in local and parochial identities. Until Nigerians forge a sense of a national ethos around ideological commitments to people-oriented democratic politics, we will continue to wallow in the theater of the absurd, the reach of the good life as defined by improved life-space conditions for the vast majority of Nigerians will remain an illusion. I applaud Sanusi for his candor on these issues.   Folu Ogundimu   From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Anunoby, Ogugua Sent: Thursday, February 24, 2011 1:37 PM To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - FW: The Story of Nigeria     Please read.

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