I went to do some readings and jottings in Ekiti State University (EKSU) recently, so I took an Akoto – a commercial bus – when returning home. During this very short journey back home, something very dramatic happened between one Hausa man and a Yoruba man which caught my attention and created in me a strong impression about the nation – Nigeria.
We were already inside the cab when the Yoruba man waved down. and entered the bus. Akoto (as being fondly called) is a small 7-seater commercial bus that often plies major campuses. The Akoto sitting arrangement: One passenger sits at the front, three in the middle and three passengers also sit at the back.
So, the Yoruba man hopped in and joined me at the back seat and we continued the journey. Three people were already in the middle seat and one at the front too.
Few minutes after, the Hausa man waved down and the driver pulled over and opened the door for him, indicating that he should enter the back seat to complete the back seat formation. Instantly, the Hausa man looked at the driver and mumbled some words in annoyance; that he could not enter the back seat, that he wanted the middle seat.
So the driver had to appeal to one of the passengers occupying the middle seat to join us at the back seat, after which the Hausa man hopped in and we continued with our journey.
One would have felt that all was well, not until the Yoruba man who earlier entered the cab flared up and challenged the Hausa man for not entering the back seat. He said: “Alaye, who do you think you are self”? “Why can’t you sit here”? “Are those of us sitting here not human being”? “Imagine, in Yoruba land, Hausa is giving order”? Before the Yoruba man finished, the Hausa replied: “Shege for you, wahalahi”; shey na you go pay por my money”? “Thunder fire your life” and continued in Hausa language.
Initially, we thought it was a joke before but it nearly turned into a full blown crisis that evening. The Hausa man kept calling the Yoruba man “Wayo, animal and Barawo”; Yoruba man kept calling the Hausa man “Malu, Boko Haram, etc”. The Hausa man brought out knife and said he would slaughter the Yoruba man. The Yoruba man put his hand in his pocket all through the heated argument, boasting of aluwo (war amulet). People were gathering around the scene trying to appeal to them; another Yoruba-Hausa ethnic conflict was about to ensue, save for interventions from some peace-loving Nigerians.
At last, it took the intervention of some police officers who finally dowsed the tension. I left the scene but didn’t forget the crucial lessons learnt from the experience.
It’s my opinion that while some scholars and authors have repeatedly faulted the unholy marriage and gruesome mistake of 1914 as one of the cardinal problems militating against propensity for nation-building in Nigeria, others have downplayed the roles of ethnicity, by justifying the heterogeneous nature of Nigerian state in her unity in diversity as palpable in other developed or growing federalist states around the globe.
But the drama I witnessed between that elderly Yoruba man and elderly Hausa man practically validated the need to re-interrogate the amalgamation of 1914 and re-historicise our existence as a nation.
Indeed, this drama has further demonstrated the level of distrust, disconnect and disdain that exist among us as a people; as palpable in the unhealthy rivalry that permeates the interconnectivity and interrelationship of the various ethnic nationalities in Nigeria.
“One Nigeria” is just an illusion or a contradiction.
We are so disjointed and disunited in this country.
- Deji Oso,
Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State. adeadejioso247@gmail.com
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