By Nnaji Jekwu Onovo
I congratulate you, the President elect and wish you successful reign as the Executive President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Nigerians keep bickering and floundering, as we grapple with the challenges of nation building, especially, entrenching democratic norms. In political contestations, Nigerians are usually divided along ethnic and religious lines. Ethnicity and Religion are the pronounced fault lines threatening Nigeria’s existence. Ethnic chauvinists and religious bigots are the undertakers working hard to bury the country. They are vociferous and dominate the media waves especially the social media, churning out hate speeches and pitching neighbours against one another. By and large, they are in minority, and that is the reason Nigeria remains intact. Greater number of Nigerians are happy to live together, forging ahead as one people. These patriotic Nigerians expressed their resolve through the 2023 Presidential Election where the frontrunners scaled Religion and Ethnic barriers. The presidential results in most states of the federation portrayed our unity in diversity.
Section 134 of the constitution stipulates that a candidate to be elected as president must win majority of the votes cast, and score one-quarter of votes cast at the election in each of at least two-thirds of all states in the federation and the capital territory, Abuja.
The three frontrunners are Peter Obi, a Christian from the South-East; Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Muslim from South-West; and Atiku Abubakar, Muslim from North-East. Each of these won in some states outside their supposed strongholds as per religious and ethnic considerations. Peter Obi won outright in twelve states and got 25% spread in seventeen states cutting across South-East, South-South, South-West, North-Central and North-East. Atiku Abubakar won outright in twelve states and got 25% spread in twenty one states across North-East, North-West, North-Central, South-South and South-West. Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the President-Elect won outright in twelve states and got 25% spread in thirty states across South-West, South-South, North-East, North-West and North-Central. We are one, and the 2023 Presidential contest reinforced the brotherhood we share — UNITY IN DIVERSITY. This is the brotherhood we must propagate.
“Unity in Diversity.” This expression speaks about a balance between wholeness and difference, between integrity and variety. Unity in diversity can also suggest something very important to us, as human beings. Because it can illustrate that things or people don’t have to look, walk, talk, and think exactly alike in order to be in union with each other.
Not all differences can be held together. Some differences between us really do divide us. But not all differences divide. In fact, some differences make for an even deeper unity. This sounds surprising, but anyone in a reasonably healthy marriage knows this instinctively: two people don’t have to become identical to each other in order to be in union with each other. In fact, it is often precisely the differences that make their union not only more interesting, but also more real, more substantial. We don’t, as a rule, marry mirror-images of ourselves.
It means that our unity doesn’t depend on our being identical, or completely undifferentiated. In short, unity is not uniformity. Unity is not uniformity, but the challenge is to identify and maintain coherence and unity within a diverse body. In Nigeria, that means the challenge of holding together diverse views, showing where they cohere—and also where they do not.
Mr. President elect Sir, I suggest you make national integration the fulcrum of your administration. As the Head of State and Commander-In-Chief, you are in a unique position to build bridges, to break down the barriers, to promote dialogue of understanding, and to forge stronger bonds among different tribes and faiths.
The voting spread for the candidates is true reflection of the reality of Nigerian setting as multi-dimensional mosaic. The linguistic and ethnic geography of Nigeria is a multi-dimensional mosaic, with origin, kinship, languages, territoriality, religion, cultures, habitation, occupation and identity, over-lapping and over-arching and intermeshing, at so many levels, and changing in response to so many factors. It is not a question of where one ethnic group ends and where one begins, but of exactly what you are talking about when you talk about Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa-Fulani, Ijaw or Efik.
There is no country in the world today, which is not torn by civil war, yet whose basis of corporate existence is being subjected to persistent attacks, by an articulate section of its own politicians, journalists and other opinion leaders, as the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
There is gap, between, what is actually happening in Nigeria, and what is reported about it. This gap is not just a result of sensational reporting, important as that factor is. It is also not just the result of ignorance, important as that is also. It has deeper roots in a distinct outlook on Nigeria and Nigerians.
This outlook arises from the powerful position which three false assumptions about Nigeria and Nigerians have acquired in the minds of those reporting on Nigerian affairs, and even of some of those participating in them. These false assumptions are, firstly, the existence of a fundamental dichotomy between the North and the South of Nigeria. Secondly, the inevitability of competition and conflicts between supposedly monolithic and distinctive ethnic, groups, which are said to have existed as distinct racial entities for millennia, and which are said to be the constituent units of the country. Thirdly, the supposedly inherent antagonism between the Muslims and the Christians of Nigeria.
J.F.Ade Ajayi and E.J. Alagoa, Professors of History, drew attention to the geographical compactness of Nigeria The two distinguished scholars also brought out facts which led to the conclusions that, like all countries in the world, Nigeria is indeed a geographical expression, and at that crucial geographical level of human existence, it is not an arbitrary creation, for there were sound geographical factors favouring its formation.
Just as J.C.Anene, Professor of History, noted, the boundaries of Nigeria were, like all political boundaries, all over the world, and throughout history, artificial, but they were not arbitrary.
The overriding national question today has been how to maintain pan-Nigeria and supra-national identity that will supersede multi-groups that live in the country. This is not an easy task considering the entrenched nature of ethnic politics in the society.
The intermixing, and intermeshing of dialects, and of languages, which has gone on for millennia in this country, has made it obvious that any attempt to use ethnicity as a basis for political representation will not only be economically retrogressive, but be a recipe for a complete political disaster. This is further confirmed by the pattern of settlements and of migration which do not conform to the picture of Nigeria as being constituted by separate blocks of monolithic ethnic groups, each with its own language, identity, separate territory and its own leaders, and spokesmen.
Efforts should be made through appropriate legislation to remove indigene syndrome. It is an aberration of nation-building and national integration to see fellow Nigerians, whom were born and may have lived in a place all their lives, being discriminated against because they are not indigenes of the area.
Communities will independence and self-determination when they consider that their value systems are no longer taken sufficiently into account by the society in which they have formed a part and the elites which rule it. Therefore, it is desirable that your administration should work towards development for the benefit of all citizens of the country. The more fairly a society is organised, the more the people tend to forget about the particularism that divide them. Conversely, the more unfairly a society is organised, the more its citizens revive and cling to all manner of cleavages of deep segmentation and the more conflict arise.
Several commentaries have been passed by individuals, about the possible causes of the peaking crime and violence in Nigeria, but none seem as strong as “social injustice.”
Even though, social injustice might exist in other societies at various levels, the situation in Nigeria is apparently different from what might be obtainable in any side of the world; ranging from the nation’s resource management, to her education and human development— the sounds of the themes of justice and equity are long dead. Over the years, there has been structural violence inflicted by the Nigerian government which touch the very foundation of living of average Nigerians, unsustainable and tough economic policies that harden survival in the country, public lies and unfriendly national responses to issues which anger human discretion—and these among many other immoral actions by the government have forced reprisal responses from Nigerians against the failing leadership. His Excellency Sir, one of the salient points in your social contract with the electorates is restoration of social justice.
Nigerians are in agreement that the cost of governance has become too high and frustrating efforts at using available resources to fix the infrastructure deficit and attend to matters that will improve the living conditions of the majority who live below the poverty line. There is the urgent need for a comprehensive governance reform to cut down the bloated cost of governance. I challenge your administration to cut down the cost of governance and save funds for projects that will benefit majority of Nigerians.
Our understandings of modern democracy is the highly upheld view and believe that the more paramount function of government is the effective and efficient utilization of scarce resources to bring about improvement in the conditions of life of the majority. This means that every single naira of public fund should be spent in such a way to bring about maximum benefits to the majority of the people.
One of the ‘dividends’ of democracy, which Nigerians have reaped since the transfer of power from the military to civilians on May 29, 1999, is the rising spates of ethnic, religious and communal conflicts, with devastating consequences on lives and property.
Nigeria is undoubtedly one very tense country, insofar as ethno-religious relationships are concerned. A combination of interrelated crises has stretched the bonds of unity, the fabrics of nationhood, as well as the ingredients of citizenship identity, very thin, to a potentially snapping point. Although the incredible resiliency demonstrated by Nigerians has somehow prevented the dismemberment of the country, the tension hangs in the air like thick clouds, such that, for example, a mere argument between two traders of different ethnic backgrounds in a market has been known to ignite widespread violent conflict.
The nation needs a purposeful leadership that has a vision of how to place its citizens at the centre of political project without recourse to ethnic chauvinism and sees acquisition of political power as not an end in itself but a means for serving the collective welfare of its people regardless of their ethnic origin. A leadership that recognizes and respects the many peoples that makes up this nation; and treats all communities as its constituency, thereby allaying the fear of ethnic domination. I am convinced, Nigerians elected you on the premise that you will offer purposeful leadership. The ball is in your court, President elect.
Democracy is about freedom, but it is not freedom to be irresponsible. It is freedom within certain understandable limits but events in the present republic has shown that the freedom allowed by democracy is being abused. Although the constitution guarantees freedom to form and hold an opinion, the Nigerian situation is such that the competitors for power are known to have taken control on issues that are definitely well beyond their sphere of competence, and are making personal profits out of them at the expense of the corporate existence, economic revival and integration of the nation-state. Thus, concrete efforts must be made to tackle the wave of clashes across the country, since political and ethnic affiliations are human attributes and conflict is inevitable.
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