Ethnic and tribal inclinations have divided us more than they have united us, by Nebo Peter

Recently, a 3 years old boy, named Fola in ‘short’, parked into our vicinity with his Mum. Fola is a loving and charming Yoruba boy. Any time, I sit around my apartment doing some menial jobs Fola would always come around to cheer me up and would expect some goodies from me for offering his friendly stay.



One day, I was about leaving for a function when Fola sighted me from a distance and started shouting…’my friend….my friend.  Truthfully, Fola’s shouts endeared me and I tell you sincerely, those shouts bespoke of an innocent boy, unknown to the hatreds of this nation, sincere, obedient and humble, three of the cardinal virtues that Jesus figuratively spoke of in Matt: 19: 14 of those who shall inherit God’s kingdom.

Fola’s friendly remarks aside, another gesture that got me thinking was his Mum. Fola was with his Mum when he made those genuine shouts. Mummy Fola, an Ijebu Yoruba woman in her late thirties, scolded Fola quietly immediately afterwards and I heard her clearly from where I stood. Either she thought I couldn’t hear her or her remarks were preposterous, I heard Mummy Fola said to Fola vividly; ‘Stop! Stop! He’s not your friend!”

Hmmm…, imagine Mummy Fola telling a 3years old boy that a friend and a neighbor, barely 2 months after they parked into our compound, was not his friend. ‘Hmmm….’, I shuddered again as I briskly walked away in feigned ignorance of the situation but for some minutes I thought what could make Mummy Fola to say that: Age? I didn’t think so; Respect? I didn’t think so; Humor? I didn’t think so because her voice was tense and spitefully hateful.  ‘May be because I’m Igbo and she is Yoruba’, I reasoned at last. Or…wait …may be because my sponge-like beard was gradually developing like that of Osama Bin Laden and the woman does not like men who wore ‘Bin-Ladistic’ beards... (Chuckles)

Anyway, whatever the case I have come to draw some important lessons on harmful and inciting ethnic, tribal and religious sentiments that are really killing the progress and unity of this nation, Nigeria. If at age 3 Mummy Fola could instill this tribal sentiment in Fola of ‘who is a friend and who is not a friend’, ‘of  who is an Infidel and who is not an Infidel’ because of ethnic and religious inclinations, what happens tomorrow if Fola becomes the President of a  political and ethnic diverse nation like Nigeria, or what would Fola’s psychological outlook  as a Nigerian be if after thirty years these parental influence and sentiments are still in borne, entrenched, uncontaminated, enshrined, endemic, enthroned and deeply sated in him. 

Oh…I see these inter-tribal and religious sentiments play themselves out on daily basis. In Lagos, I knew of some teenagers and adults who have openly denied their tribe because of some tongue-lashing ethnic sentiments and behaviors. Some have changed their names just to garner some inordinate ethnic favors. I’m not an ethnic bigot, I believe in the unity and oneness of all humanity especially Nigerians, but I openly detest it when someone deny his or her background because of taunts against his or her background or, when remarks like ‘Omo igbo’, ‘onye ofemmanu’, “aboki’,  are carelessly and derogatorily used on someone. The other day I confronted a 25years old girl from Imo state for not speaking her mother tongue but would rap ‘Yoruba’ like Phyno. To my surprise and before her Mum, this girl whose parents left the shores of the Igbo land immediately after the Nigerian civil war to come down to Lagos, said and I was marveled: “Igbo ni, Igbo ke…I’m not Igbo joor…I be Yoruba girl abeg”. 

 Oh, how malicious and spiteful ethnic penchants have foul-polluted our clime and we wonder why we are yet to attain our full potential as a nation.

On the national basis, although Nigeria’s problems are hydra-headed, ethnic and religious inclinations are really the big shouts of our hydra-headed problems. Otherwise why would in this time and season of economic brouhaha our leaders still play the ‘Divide and rule game”.  Why do they still play the ‘APC saints and the PDP demons’ over and over again when the poor masses are languishing in anguish and debaucheries, and when the best option we have now as a nation is to harness the best brains together, no matter the tribe, no matter the party, no matter the language, no matter the religion and unabashedly push the course of this nation forward. What is preventing this present administration from inviting and pitching tents with some of our reputed technocrats? This dilly dallying ‘degoatification’ and ‘regoatification’, in the words of Prof. PIUS ADESANMI, we see in our polity, and the avalanche evidences of “North is Might mentality’ are really getting us nowhere and is time we reverse the gear. No tribe is superior to the other, and no tribe is inferior to other. This has been the economic messages of Martin Luther King Jnr., Mahatma Gandhi and Steve Biko that ‘no race is greater than the other’; that we can do better as a nation when we harness our individual and tribal resources together. From the Skyscrapers of Dubai Modern City to America’s numerous political, economic and technological achievements this message still rings out, loud and clear. I don’t care whose ox is gored, let’s separate tribalism and inordinate religiosity from good governance. 

This is the time we have to look inward. This is the time we have to call a spade a spade. This is the time our Leaders must rise up to the occasion, jettison every tribal and partisan hatreds, smash every heads of their demonic influences, prize the unification and development of this nation above every other affiliates Gestapo to the course of a better Nigeria; not of ethnic sentiments, not of religious sentiments but of the drive to build a great nation. This is the divine and prophetic time, and while I applaud the Present administration on their Agricultural schemes and various Youth empowerment programs more still needs to be done in Youth empowerment schemes, unification of the various Ethnic groups in Nigeria, States Empowerment and Restructuring, Poverty alleviation programs, Infrastructural developments, ICT, Inclusive and Open Free trade zones, Judiciary Empowerment and restructuring, Armed forces re-orientation, Bi-lateral trades and strong economic ties and so on. 

Finally, four things make a great nation: One Language, One Religion, Good Leadership and continued Human Investments. 

The last two of these developmental factors are sacrosanct while the first two are endogenous binding forces of any great nation.

The last two of these developmental factors cannot be done without, but the first two of these developmental factors can be harnessed through effective leadership if there are obvious gaps in a nation’s religious and ethnic diversities. 

Thank God the English language has bridged the gaps of our multi-lingual differences. What needs to be seconded in addition to our common English usage is an unbiased unification of our various fronts, tribes and resources. And until I see a new Nigeria where competence is prized above mediocrity, ethnicity, party and religious affiliations, where people are elected and selected based on their competence and not their ethnic or party affiliations; until I see a new Nigeria where the Igbos, Hausas, Yorubas, Efiks, Orhobos, Ijaws and so on are appreciated for who they are and are accorded their rightful places in the development of our dear nation; until I see a new Nigeria where our sons and daughters are no longer appointed in offices based on their strong-tied connections, language and religious flavors but a Nigeria where hard work, proficiency, drive for excellence and accountability, open-mindedness and pragmatism are the deciding positional factors; until I see a new Nigeria where the gates of leadership are open to all and exclusive to none; until I see a new Nigeria where the 36 states of our Federation are duly empowered and our Governors are held seriously accountable for their acts and misconducts; until I see a new Nigeria where our Law Enforcement Agencies will not cower some, torture some, humiliate some, shove on the throats of some, kick and disgrace some, but where the rule of law will take its roots and proper cause; until I see a new Nigeria  where I’m not asked which tribe I belong to before I’m even considered or where they will look at my face and say ‘no…na “Omo Igbo oooo”, but where as a ‘Nigerian’ I have the full rights of a bona fide citizen; until I see a new Nigeria where a Facebook or Twitter comment will not bring about tirades of ethnics spits and hates but where we seek opinions, solutions, practical efforts  and where ideas are cross-pollinated. Until then the Nigeria I see today is nothing but a mirage; bro, the more you look the less you see. And if it has become the more you look the less you see I think the wailers shouts of “To your tents O Nigerians” is beginning to sound reasonable to me.  

Nebo Peter is a Motivational writer and Entrepreneur.