How Nigerians perceive themselves

Great Britain as an unrepentant colonial power joined together about 250 disparate nationalities to form a country called Nigeria, which officially came into existence on January 1, 1914. It was a masterstroke by Lord Lugard brought about by the amalgamation of the British possessions of northern protectorate, the colony and the protectorate of southern Nigeria. The British colonialists did this amalgamation for their economic interests without consulting the leaders of these different nationalists, which had and still have seemingly unbridgeable cultural, religious, social and political differences. As to be expected, this forced union led to searing tension, acrimony, wrangling and suspicion among the people in the new country, which were invariably fuelled by the colonialists through their subtle ‘divide and rule’ colonial policy.

As the people of the new country interacted with one another, and competed fiercely for the few opportunities opened to them under the oppressive colonial administration, they developed prejudices for each other and in the process developed derogatory names for people outside their nationalities.

The suspicion engendered among the different nationalities in Nigeria and the derogatory name calling that ensued from this was rife during the colonial era when Nigerians were interacting politically for the first time. This situation was well manifested in Lagos, the then centre of political activities in the country. The Yoruba and Igbo political elites were at each other’s throat. The Igbo through their mouthpiece, the West African Pilot owned by Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe referred to Yoruba as a ‘decadent race’, while the Yoruba elites used the Daily Service to portray the Igbo people as selfish group of people (I Before Others). The coming of the people from the northern part of the country into the political limelight in the country was greeted by Mbonu Ojike in West African Pilot with a provocative headline, ‘The Malams are coming.’

It is usual all over the world for nationalities lumped together in the same country to be suspicious of one another, and to refer to themselves with derogatory names and so this situation is not unique to our fractious country. For example, the English people refer to the Welsh people as ‘Taffy’ and the Irish as ‘Paddy’ or ‘Mick.’ The English people also derogatorily refer to the Scottish people as ‘Jock.’ The uneasiness among the different nationalities in the United Kingdom manifested itself every time in the constant agitations of the Scottish people to have a country of their own and the age long agitation of the IRA to have Northern Ireland joined to the Republic of Ireland. The French and the English people have a history of mutual antagonism. The French people refer to the English people as ‘Perfidious Albion’ while the English people refer to the French people as ‘Frogs’ which is a subtle reference to the use of frog legs as a delicacy in French cuisine.  The Australians as retaliation for the way the British government dumped their delinquent forefathers into the then desolate Australia, refer to the English people derogatorily up till now as ‘pommies.’

Comedians all over the world sometimes use the differences between people to produce rib cracking jokes for the entertainment of their audiences, and Nigerian comedians are no exception although some of their jokes could be off beat and nauseating like the jokes cracked by a comedian at the end of year carnival organised by the Cross River state government recently. This particular comedian cracked jokes which jolted me and gave me food for thought about the present unsavoury condition and perception of the Yoruba people of south-western Nigeria. The comedian was good as a jester and at that event worked his audience into a frenzy and in one of his jokes he asked his audience to identify which nationality in Nigeria was noted for each of the following occupations, computer expert, electronic expert, importer and exporter, agbero (motor park tout), omo onile (people extort land developers by force) and rent collector. As he was calling these so-called occupations one by one, the audience without prompting assigned the first three occupations to the Igbo people while the audience roared with glee to assign the last three occupations to the Yoruba people.

Many people nowadays feel that the Yoruba people of South-west are no longer as pushful and result-oriented as their immediate fore-bearers. That is why the late Chinua Achebe in his book titled The Trouble With Nigeria could enthuse that  ‘the huge historical and geographical head-start by the Yoruba over the Igbo was wiped out in one fantastic burst of energy in 20 years between 1930 and 1950.’ That is why an ethnically biased journalist could refer to the Yoruba people as ‘educated moron.’ And that is why a barely literate jester could attribute menial and unproductive occupations to the Yoruba people.

I see the present situation in Yoruba land which was gloomily painted by the late Gen. Adeyinka Adebayo before his death as a challenge to the present political leaders in that region. Fortunately, this is an election season when politicians promise heaven and earth to the people. They should know that the South-west needs repair and the people of that region want to know from them the blueprint they have for the repair – enough of empty promises. We need to rekindle the spirit of hard work and regional development as we had during the time of the legendary Chief Obafemi Awolowo.  Fortunately, the region has an integrated body known as The Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) which was formed in 2010 by the governments of all the states in the old Western state. This body should be given enough muscle so that it could be the veritable vehicle for the needed development and orientation of the people of that region. The perception of an average Yoruba person as an agbero or Omo onile in the mind of other people in Nigeria should be changed. An average Yoruba person, like other Nigerians, work hard to make his or her living despite the perennial searing economic doldrums in the country.

 Lucas writes from Old Bodija, Ibadan

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