I cannot help returning repeatedly to the fundamental problem of Nigeria. The reason is that without finding a reasonably broadly acceptable solution to it, we are not likely ever to make Nigeria a stable country. This fundamental problem is not peculiar to Nigeria; it is common to virtually all Black African countries. And it is because no Black African country has found a broadly acceptable solution to it that virtually all Black African countries are forever going through turmoil and conflicts. And the reason no African country has found a solution to it is that African leaders, in general, do not accept fact as fact concerning this problem and deal with it as reasonable humans.
This fundamental problem is that Black Africa is peculiarly a land of mostly very small nationalities. Even at today’s population levels (after a century of rapid population growths), almost all of the sub-continent of Black Africa is still home to very small nationalities. Its largest nationalities are the three that live in the West Africa sub-region, namely the three giants of Nigeria (Yoruba, Hausa-Fulani and Igbo, each of which is estimated at about between 35 and 50 million).
After these three, the few that are next in population size are much smaller, ranging roughly between 11 million and 18 million. These include the Nguni of the Union of South Africa (consisting of many small loosely related linguistic groups), the Ijaw of the Nigerian Niger Delta (also consisting of many small loosely related linguistic groups), the Bakongo of the Congo basin (now split between Congo Kinshasa, Angola, Central African Republic and Congo Brazzaville), the Akhan (in the Republic of Ghana) , the Fula spread thinly over much of the West African Sudan and Sahel, the Shona of Zimbabwe, the Somali of the Horn of Africa, and the Amhara and Oromo of Ethiopia.
The next ones below these are also few and much smaller. Each of them is estimated at between five and nine million in population. They include the Sotho of the Union of South Africa, the Kikuyu of Kenya, the Ewe of Ghana, the Kanuri and related peoples, as well as the Edo and related peoples, of Nigeria.
The rest of the sub-continent is shared among thousands of very small nationalities. Some have populations in the range of a couple of millions. Of the overwhelming majority, each has much less than that – many having populations of only a few tens of thousands.
With this minute ethno-linguistic fragmentation of the Black African sub-continent, every Black African country of our times, including the two (Liberia and Ethiopia) that are not creations of modern European colonialism, comprises tens of nationalities. Nigeria, the largest in population, with some 170 million people, has over 300 nationalities – of which the three largest share about 130 million. Clearly over 100 of Nigerian nationalities have populations of only a few hundred thousand or less each. Nigeria’s immediate western neighbor, the small Republic of Benin with a population of about eight million, is home to about 40 nationalities – a condition about typical of most Black African countries. Tanzania, with a population of about 38 million people, has about 120 ethnic groups.
Therefore, no matter what form Black Africa’s entry into the world of the 20th century would have taken, this fundamental problem would have been indeed a difficult reality to handle – since most countries would have needed to contain many nationalities. But, in fact, and unfortunately, Black Africa’s entry into the world of the 20th century actually took perhaps the worst form imaginable in the circumstance. It took the form of conquest, control and direction by European imperialists who had no respect whatsoever for Black African peoples. In the process, the European imperialists compounded and confounded Black Africa’s fundamental problem.They twisted and mangled this problem so much that it became a hideous monster, which, after independence in Africa, has been generating a massive and tenacious nightmare for all countries, and all peoples, of Black Africa. Approaching African peoples with deep disrespect, the European creators of our modern countries simply trampled down our various nationalities, cut boundaries through the homelands of countless nationalities, and created new countries in such ways as to make room for little or no likelihood of cohesion or stability immediately or in any future.
To convey some picture of the sordid disrespect with which Europeans created our countries, I hereby quote two passages from those who created our countries. In 1884-5, representatives of leading European countries met in Berlin in Germany to share Africa among them. One of those representatives wrote later: “We have been engaged in drawing lines on maps where no white man’s foot has ever trod; we have been giving away mountains and rivers and lakes to each other, only hindered by the small impediment that we have never known where the rivers and lakes and mountains were”. One British official who took part in creating the boundaries of Nigeria wrote later:”In those days, we just took a blue pencil and ruler, and we put it down at Old Calabar, and drew that blue line to Yola. I recollect thinking when I was sitting having an audience with the Emir (of Yola) surrounded by his tribe, that it was a very good thing that he did not know that I, with a blue pencil, had drawn a line through his territory”.
That is the ignorant, disrespectful and shoddy manner in which our country, Nigeria, was created – and in which all other countries of Black Africa were created. That is the ignorant and disrespectful manner in which the internal boundaries of our Nigeria were created. When we feel like making noises about our Nigeria or about our North, or whatever, we needto remind ourselves of these sorry pictures. Starkly put, our country and its colonial internal boundaries are one package of ignorant and presumptuous errors. They are a package of wounds that still pain many of our nationalities.
This does not mean, of course, that Nigeria is impossible to keep together and to build into a successful country. What it does mean, however, is that those who manage the affairs of Nigeria must keep consciously aware of the fundamental realities of the country we call Nigeria. It means that we must consciously nurture a culture of respect of every nationality, large or small. It means that we must be committed to a true federation, and to a federal structure and order based on respect for our nationalities. With these, we can make success of Nigeria; without them, we cannot.
This is the wisdom that Elliot P. Skinner imparted when he wrote, “African countries will continue to be racked by conflicts unless leaders agree about how to govern their multi-faceted nation-states and how to distribute their economic resources equitably. Without compromise that would ensure “ethnic justice”, neither so-called “liberal democracy” nor any other species of government will succeed in Africa”.
In short, no matter what else we do, we must provide a broadly acceptable solution to the fundamental problems of our ethnic national diversity – a solution acceptable to our various nationalities – before we can make a success of Nigeria. Asking us Nigerians to think of ourselves as Nigerians only and cease thinking of ourselves as Yoruba, Ijaw, Hausa, Ibibio, Igbo, Kanuri, etc, is no more than a piece of ridiculous childishness. We are what we are. Wisdom demands that we should make our country harmonize with that.
