The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Tribalism

  • 2018: The year of the tribalism, Buhari and Trump

    Xenophobia  is the fear of   strangers  and ethnocentricism is the belief  that one’s culture  is the best.  2018,  outgoing as it is,  was   the year that  these two  concepts were  stretched  to their limit amongst  nations of the world, on the  issues  of  security  and migration. The  influx  of migrants especially  from the Middle East into Europe  tested greatly  the  concepts   of  charity and love for  your neighbor,  which  is the guiding principle  of  Europe  which  boasts  of being Christian and  historically   merciful  to those fleeing war.  Italy, the   host   of the Vatican and Roman  Catholicism, literally  closed its borders   to migrants   and elected a government that campaigned   and won  on refusing  to  allow  access to migrants facing death on the Mediterranean   while   entering Europe. Italy  suddenly   realized that  Italy  is  for  Italians.  So  did Hungary, Poland, Czech  Republic and Slovakia. In  the EU   nations ,  the fear and hatred  of  migrants and strangers  reached its zenith in 2018.

    In  Nigeria, a presidential  candidate  picked an  Igbo  man to be his running mate and the entire Igbo nation in 2018  pledged  their  total  support  for the PDP  in the 2019  elections. In  similar  fashion a governor of the ruling party in Nigeria called  on  the Yoruba race to reward the  Buhari   government  with reelection  because it has given  choice positions to the Yorubas in his government that came to power in 2015. The  Vice  President backed   this up   by  asking the Yorubas  to vote  for Buhari in 2019  so as to brighten their  chances  of claiming or clinching the presidency  in 2023.

    Even  in Britain , Nigeria’s  former colonial  overseer,   the Queen , Elizabeth 11, in her Xmas  message   while extolling the benefit  of wisdom, noted that the bane of  our time,   taxing  the wise  principles of  faith, family, and friendship in a paradoxical  world of good and evil, is the emergence  of  the tribe. It  is the use of the word tribe on an issue  that Europeans  normally call Nationalism, or  Populism,  by  the   Queen  that caught  my attention in that royal speech. The  word  tribe is normally  used by the colonialists  to characterize the  different  and various  ethnic   groups  they  bandied together to  form  nation  states   in  a tension soaked existence   that  lacked trust  and  mutual  understanding  and  has led  to the political   instability  that was  the flagship  of post  independent developing nations  that  emerged from the colonial  era globally.  That  was why  the Great   Awo  was  able to  point  out that the word  Nigeria  was   ‘a mere  geographical   expression’ .  So  what  prompted  the normally benignly  quiet  British  monarch   to use  the word tribe in   a manner   deploring Nationalism  which  has reached its  peak  in   Europe   in  2018?

    It  is my view  that the confusion of Brexit,  itself  a product  of  Xenophobia,  and   doubt on how to implement it might  be a factor. But  I  think  the use of tribe to deplore resentment of strangers  inherent  in Brexit  as well  as the suffocating effect  of  US  President Donald  Trump’s  America First policy   on Europe, and reflected in the  Brexit vote,  could  have made the Queen  to  use  the  word tribe. And  that  usage,   because  of  Trump  makes  the word  tribe  perjorative   as used   by  the Queen  but  all  the same with  that same   hostile   meaning of nationalism  and fear  of strangers  in  2018, especially migrants, in the EU  and Britain.

    What  I  am  getting at  today is to  make  the choice  of   a Man  of the Year 2018   and from  my  musings  so  far   I think  it is clear  where  I am  heading.  Since  the Man  of the Year  according to Time Magazine’s   globally   accepted   benchmark   is someone who  has dominated  world events for  good  or bad,   I will  pick a global   one   and  a Nigerian  Man  of the Year and top this up with  an  Idea  that  has affected the world most, also  for good  or bad.  Consequently  my   Nigerian Man  of the year   is the Nigerian President Muhammadu  Buhari. My global  Man of the Year  is US President  Donald Trump and my  Idea of the Year  is Tribe, or  Tribalism  in Nigeria or  Nationalism in Europe as discussed  before,    as they are  both   different   sides   of the same  coin, in my  view.

    President  Muhammadu Buhari has influenced Nigeria, for good or bad  more than any living Nigerian in 2018. This  is inspite of his illness  from which he has obviously  recuperated and despite  the fake news that he  has been cloned.  As President  I hold him responsible  for the insecurity nationwide especially  in the North East  where Boko  Haram  still  holds  sway  even  though he said some time that they  have been reduced to guerrilla  tactics. Yet  Boko  Haram  still  attacks barracks with impunity  according to news  reports and the  Shehu  of Borno  corroborated this by telling the President on a visit that  the  terrorists   are still  active  and  murderous  and kidnap  citizens  in his domain at will.  The  president  must  account  for why perennial  power  supply  still  persists  inspite of the best effort  of his Minister  who  is fighting tooth and nail to redress the issue.  Also  the issue  of the clashes between  the farmers  and the herdsmen remain largely  unresolved   with  the herdsmen  and their spokesmen behaving and talking  as if they  are above the law.

    On  the good side I commend  the President  for  his equanimity in the face of provocation by  his detractors on his  mortality  and the insult  of the National Assembly when  he went to present his budget.   I  note  very  warmly his persistence  on the war  against  corruption and his unwavering        support for  his two  ant corruption czars  in the EFCC    and  the Nigerian  Police especially on the refusal  of the  Senate  to have these  two  gentlemen confirmed in their   positions.  I commend his  tolerance  and unusual  understanding  on  the criticism of his wife on his appointees  and the hijack of his government by alleged two or three members of a cabal and urge him  to act on his wife’s  observations as charity begins  at home.  He  has certainly  kept  Nigeria at  optimal  capacity  in terms of  political   stability and  food  security   and  on that note alone he deserves reelection for his accommodation  and understanding  of the  diversity  and complexity  of the Nigerian nation, which  he  should  reflect  in his choice  of Service  Chiefs if not now but certainly  in his next  dispensation after  reelection.

    The  choice  of  President  Donald  Trump  as global  Man of the  Year   was an easy  one for  me perhaps  because  I am  not an American or an American  educated Nigerian, most of who don’t  want to hear anything good  about Trump. As a student of global  politics I hold  him   in  constant focus  for many reasons. In  2018 he  changed world  politics, diplomacy in a U turn  manner  that is unbelievable. He  launched  a trade  war that single  handedly brought  globalization to  a stop as without the US there is no  free  trade or such  agreements as  the established ones in Asia  or North America.  He  had  a meeting with the N Korean  leader  and made the unification of the Koreas  a possibility. He  ordered his troops out of Syria  from where  the influx of migrants is threatening the stability  of the EU and went  to visit his troops   with  his wife at  Xmas  to boost  morale in Iraq  with  his wife. He  has boldly said  he is ready  for the Democrats  who  have more seats  in the House  of  Representatives  from the November 2016 Mid  Term  elections. He  has used twitter to fight  both opponents and allies  alike  and has made Isolationism US foreign  policy in 2018. Definitely  in 2018 American President  Donald  Trump  has done more  than  any leader to influence world events for good or bad in 2018. Once again  long live the Federal  Republic  of  Nigeria.

  • A political ‘tribalism’ beyond race in America: what kind of crisis does this pose for our world?

    A political ‘tribalism’ beyond race in America: what kind of crisis does this pose for our world?

    Ah, political tribalism! Its most recognizable feature is the absolute unwillingness to vote for any candidate that is not from one’s own tribe. Beyond this, it extends to the perception, rightly or wrongly, of political parties and public officeholders as extensions or indeed incarnations of the interests of particular tribes. Further along the path of its full elaboration, political tribalism involves the extreme polarization of a nation between parties and politicians deemed to be representing “tribes” whose present circumstances and future prospects cannot be integrated or reconciled. Thus, at the end of the line, political tribalism connotes two nations in one body politick on its way to dissolution. Seen in these various refractions, conventional wisdom in our world has it that the developing nations, the global South in general, constitute the unhappy location of the great majority of the political tribalism that exists and thrives in our world. The Kikuyu versus the Luo in Kenya; The Hutu versus the Tutsi in Burundi and Rwanda; the Sinhala versus the Tamils in Sri Lanka; the Buddhists versus the Rohingya in Myanmar; the Catholics versus the Protestants in Northern Ireland.

    This general profile should prepare us for an unprecedented development in the United States of America in which, nowadays and almost on a daily basis, we hear the word “tribalism” applied to the seeming absolute polarization between the two main political parties, The Democrats and The Republicans, together with their supporters. In its simplest form, this “tribalism” is easily perceived in voting patterns in the two Congressional chambers, the Senate and the House of Representatives in both of which members do not cross party lines on most issues. When a few of them do, the number is negligible in terms of the expected legislative impact of the issue. On very big issues like the confirmation of the President’s nominees for judicial appointment for life and important cabinet posts, the tribalism is more than palpable; it is compelling. I was greatly bemused when I first began to notice the regularity with which the term, “tribalism”, was being used on television roughly during the second term of Obama’s presidency. But with the advent of Donald Trump’s presidency, regularity became invariant constancy: political tribalism had reached its apogee in America.

    At this point in the discussion, it might be useful to briefly reflect on the historical anthropology of this term, “political tribalism”. Strictly speaking, most of the collective groups or peoples in the contemporary world that are designated “tribes” are not tribes; they are ethnic groups or, indeed, ethnic nations. Relatively speaking, a “tribe” is a small collectivity living close to the land and united by language and claims of common ancestry, with a history in which long-distance trading, large towns based on commerce and/or industry have not yet emerged. When these have emerged and moreover are accompanied by substantial increase in population numbers, great variation in economic production leading to the clear emergence of classes of workers and owners, rich and poor, powerful and marginalized, the term “tribe” becomes anachronistic, often deployed as a deliberate act of primitivization. To this day, this primitivist tradition survives in our continent such that where ethnic groups should be, people still talk of tribes – with or without the complicity of the peoples so constituted as the surviving “tribes” of the modern age. However, sometimes, this primitivizing impulse is intended deployed as a rebuke, as a critique in periods when extremely retrograde and primordial sentiments irrupt into the midst of completely modern polities and societies. This brings us to the present “Trump moment” in American political history in which political tribalism reigns supreme – at least almost.

    The “tribalist” elements in Trump’s America are legion. Let me identify some of the more astonishing, more bizarre among them. For instance, Trump himself has expressed racial insults or denigrating innuendos against just about every racial group in the country with the exception of Whites. As a consequence, white supremacists have been tremendously emboldened to come out of the woodwork in militant expressions and acts of hatred and bigotry that harken back to the days of the attempted genocide of Native Americans; chattel slavery for African Americans; and peonage for Asian Americans and other Non-White peoples. Also, something identified as white resentment and/or anxiety about decreasing demographic dominance of Whites has surfaced in open expressions of an impulse to “make America white again”, linking this with the slogan of “making America great again”. And perhaps most important of all, Trump and his supporters are vehemently insisting that they have a right, not only to have their own opinions and versions of reality, but indeed have a right to their own “facts’ different from the facts that all other people can objectively collect and measure. The “tribe” of fake news; the “tribe” of real news: that is what Trump and his supporters have created in a phantasmagoric inversion in which they, the inventors and purveyors of fake news, are calling the other “tribe” the manufacturers of fake news!

    The true “tribe” of fake news: this is the heart and soul of the political tribalism of Trump and his supporters, mainly in the United States but also throughout the rest of the world. White racial supremacy is essential to it; but it goes well beyond race. For in essence, it is an alliance, a comingling of white nationalism with extreme right-wing Christian fundamentalism. Those who are astonished that many Non-Whites in America and other parts of the world like and support many of Trump’s policies, actions and declarations should bear this point in mind. In Trump, all deniers of climate change and its effects throughout the planet have a found champion, a hero in Donald Trump.

    In Trump, conservatives throughout the world that are against abortion and the rights of women to control their own bodies in matters of biological and social reproduction have found a superhero. In Trump, those who think that biology is destiny and one must live out one’s allotted time on earth in the body in which one came into it have found a bedrock of opposition to the rights of transgendered individuals and groups. In Trump, Christian conservatives and literalists of Biblical texts that have long clamored for Jerusalem to be declared the capital of the State of Israel and the “Mecca” of global Christianity have found a messiah. Finally, in Trump, the rich and the poor, the powerful and the powerless of all nations with substantial Christian populations have found global fellowship as God’s own Chosen People. At least, this is what Trump and his supporters believe.

    It would seem that race and racism are the weakest links in the chain of Trump’s global political tribalism. After all, the Non-white supporters of Trump’s project of building physical and symbolic walls between the Chosen and the Damned are profoundly troubled by the fact of being in the same camp, the same tribe with the hordes of White nationalists and supremacists that have flocked to the Trump standard. And the embrace of Nazi and fascist slogans (“Blood and Soil!”) and symbols (the Swastika and the Burning Cross) by these white supremacist supporters of Trump hasn’t helped matters at all for Trump’s Non-White supporters. But race and racism have not (yet) served to open a breach among Trump’s supporters. For this, we have to look beyond race – but without forgetting the racism – to the inordinate nature and scope of Trump’s own limitless greed, corruption and mendacity in all matters financial and economic. This is why, in my opinion, the slogan that has emerged as the key to all of Trump’s calculations and stratagems is – Follow the Money! This is the key to uncovering the answer to the crisis that Trump and his national and global movement pose to our world: follow the money. Let me explain what this implies in the closing paragraphs of this piece.

    In the last few weeks, three separate but related things have been happening to Trump in his POTUS incarnation. [POTUS: President of the United States]. First, the Mueller investigation is closing in on his association with Putin and Russia during and after the presidential elections of last year. At the core of this development is the wide and cumbersome economic and financial entanglements of Trump’s businesses with Russian state and private (mafia) enterprises. Secondly, Trump and the Republicans are about to enact legislation that would provide unprecedented tax cuts to corporations and the richest 1% of the American population, at the expense of the poorest segments of the society, not leaving out substantial cuts in benefits enjoyed by the middle class. Thirdly, the lies, the falsehoods that Trump and his supporters have been spewing out since he first emerged as a leading presidential candidate of the Republican Party are being systematically exposed. Indeed, it is not an understatement to say that we are about to receive information and knowledge of wrongdoing by Trump and members of his inner circle that will dwarf any other scandal in the political history of the United States. If and when that happens, the present alliance between white supremacy and right-wing Christian fundamentalism that is at the core of the Trump phenomenon will crack and fracture, big time. That is my “prediction”. In bringing this essay to its conclusion, let me briefly dwell on this point.

    In order for political tribalism to be effective in the world – our contemporary world – many things have to be hidden from the people. This is because tribes in the historic sense survive and exist only in very few places in the world. For tribes and tribality, what has emerged is ethnic groups and ethnicity. But there is still a lot of talk, a lot of discourses on tribalism, as if all the members of ethnic groups that are profoundly differentiated by a wide range of social identities and interests act primordially as one indivisible group facing the same perils and possibilities. One way to look at this issue is to take stock of the historic fact that it is ethnic groups, ethnic nations and not “tribes” that strive for and sometimes achieve breakaway from multi-ethnic nations. Indeed, who has ever heard of “multi-tribal nations”? Thinking of the ramifications of all these factors, we are compelled to declare that political tribalism is not an anachronism, not a primitivist holdover from the past that haunts only the poor nations and societies of Africa and the developing world; it can and does erupt even in the most advanced and richest nations of the world.

    This is what we have been seeing in recent times in Europe in particular and the Western world in general, Trump and his movement being the apogee of it all. But this apex is crumbling, thanks in part to the fact that its rotten economic foundations are being exposed, not only factually but potentially electorally. I am not predicting the end of a convergence between White nationalism and apocalyptic Christian conservatism. What I see coming is Trump either driven out of the White House through impeachment – against the reluctance of the Republicans who hold voting majorities in the two chambers of Congress; or most definitely a one-term presidency at the end of which White supremacists will once again recede into political and ideological wilderness. No doubt they will attempt to regroup again and regain entrance into the political mainstream as they have done under Trump. Will we be ready for them if and when that happens? That is the question, not for now but for the future.

     

    Biodun Jeyifo

    bjeyifo@fas.harvard.edu

  • Tribalism, religion not our problem

    Sir: Tribalism and religion are artificial problems created by selfish leaders for their own personal interest.

    There are only two major tribes in Nigeria. The elites and the masses. Once you make lots of money, you belong to the elite tribe. When you are a commoner or suffering, you belong to the tribe of the masses. If you are a member of the elite and you need more power, or aspire to an elective position, you sow seeds of tribalism and religion among the masses, so as to sway their emotion for personal victory. This happens at both the national and state levels.

    Unfortunately, after the election when they have won and joined their “sworn enemies” to drink and party, the gullible masses continue to fight each other.

    Even smart people who belong to the masses sometimes will sow seeds of tribalism and religion among the masses, and then the masses will carry them up until they belong to the elite class.  It is a classic strategy used over 3000 years ago in the art of war. A commoner who aspires to sit with the elites, could stir up powerful tribal or religious sentiments; such wave if properly utilized either by shedding blood or destabilizing the elites, carries the commoner to the elite class. But once there, he immediately mingles and makes peace with the elite tribe, and turn his back on the same masses that helped him get there.

    Youths are the worst victim of this power play; they kill each other, call other tribes unprintable names, do terrible things and sometimes, even lose their lives thinking they are fighting for their right, not knowing that they are fighting for the personal welfare of someone whose own children are probably safe in America or London.

    So youths, don’t invest your hope on the government. If you don’t have a job, create one. There is abject poverty in the south as well as the north, whether Ogoni or Maiduguri. At the same time, there is massive wealth in Lagos, Onitsha, Nnewi, Aba, Kano, Abuja, irrespective of zone.

    China has five major religions – Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Islam and Christianity. Nigeria has only two – Christianity and Islam. Yet we claim that religion is our problem.

    America, the strongest economy is comprised of every tribe in the world since they accept anybody from any part of the world. Yet they are united and extremely patriotic. Nigeria has three major tribes, and we claim tribalism.

    Late General Sani Abacha’s loot is still stashed away in Switzerland. Did he use it to develop the north? Those that stole billions under the previous administration of Goodluck Jonathan stashed it away in foreign banks, bought expensive toys, jets and foreign homes; are they using it to develop the south? Now the ones stealing currently including the “grass-cutters”, are looking for Ikoyi apartments, abandoned houses, and pit toilets to hide it. Are they using it for the youths in their tribe?

    Nigeria is bigger than these corrupt elites. They are the problem, not the poor masses.

    •Usman Mohammed,
    Lapai-Niger State.

  • ‘Tribalism is Nigeria’s biggest problem’

    A Senior Pastor of Olivet Bible Church, Owen Nlekwuma, has said tribalism is the major cause of corruption in the country.

    According to him, lack of patriotism and loss of focus in churches caused the spread of corruption.

    Nlekwuma spoke at a news conference on activities lined up for the fourth edition of the annual Greater Grace Conference, scheduled tol hold between May 10 and 14.

    The theme of the conference is ‘Boundless’.

    Nlekwuma said the church had failed to transform society because it kept growing without having a spiritual impact on the society.

    According to him, tackling tribalism and using a nationalistic approach will solve a lot of problems.

    He said: “There is a loss of focus and purpose in the church. The passion to be Christians in the 1970s and 80s can’t be compared to what is obtainable these days.

    “Many don’t join churches for the reason it is for. They join just like they do with every other club. So, the church grows large; yet, its spiritual impact is not felt on society.

    “Something is wrong. And part of it comes from the pulpit, because pastors teach about everything else but not how the individual can make eternal life.”