Memo to the tribalist
Where two or three Nigerians are gathered, there are bound to be diametrically opposing pontifications aplenty. Although the jury is still out as to whether Nigeria is a mere geographical expression or a solid nation state, there is no doubt at all that there is something like the Nigerian temperament totally distinguishable from any other.
Nigerians are robust, energetic and self-confident. Yes, maybe we could do with a dose of humility and transparency, however in the political ‘Serengeti’ of our continent, there is no doubt that our place is at the top of the food chain.
But our Achilles heel is our penchant for self-hate. We forget that as we are part of the body of humanity known as Nigeria, when we demonise one section more demons chase down our own little corner of the woods too. We are part of the human collective. What blights one defaces the others.
From as way back as one can remember, the Nigerian political elite have always used the twin factors of religion and ethnicity to divide and rule the people. But if their argument had any modicum of veracity, all the treasury looters unmasked in the last 18 months would have belonged to a single tribe or a single religion.
But no, check out the list of our eminent thieves and you will see federal character in action. You will see very important church donors and financiers of mosques, hypocrites whose outward religious mien would fool you into thinking they had a direct line to God. But the only god they worship is mammon and what mammon can procure. We thought we had seen looters in the First Republic, but those were mere neophyte recruits while our current looters are field marshals.
If you haven’t asked yourself before, it’s about time you do: Why are all the tribes and ethnic groups, and indeed all religions (including the ‘religion’ of free thinking) represented in the list of looters?
By and by, many of the people at the grassroots are realising that when it comes to sharing the loot, tribal and religious differences disappear and our elite become one.
As to be expected, members of the political elite are not giving up. They are using their financial muscle to encourage a campaign of hate through every conceivable medium at their disposal. When you meet such specimens, every problem is explainable by casting aspersions on other ethnic nationalities. Raw, vile insults! You wonder what demons are eating up their innards.
At times it all sounds like Hitler’s demonisation of Jews before he finally implemented his agenda of genocide. Be careful the demons you unleash, fellow countryman!
Mr and Mrs Tribalist, your tribe is well represented in the list of armed robbers, treasury looters, kidnappers, ritual killers, internet fraudsters and drug pedlars, just as the other tribes you deride. There is no tribe that is all good just as there is none that is irredeemably bad. Every mother does have them!
The most worrying aspect of your myopia is that you are handing over the baton of hate to your children. But you forget that they are in a globalised world in which those children you have villagised will have no place. Has it ever occurred to you that the more you villagise your children the narrower their catchment scope in terms of spread and reach?
Naturally, you can dislike what some people are doing. That is your entitlement. But, as Pope Francis has repeatedly said, we have no right to hate anyone because hate begets terrible consequences. Coretta Scott King expressed similar sentiments in a different way, “Hate is too great a burden to bear. It injures the hater more than it injures the hated.”
Check out the innocuous rumblings and hate peddling that preceded the Rwanda genocide. Having sufficiently stripped rival tribes of their humanity through stereotypes, rumours and hate vending, the next step naturally was to lash out at the source of their anger. In their minds they were not killing fellow human beings, they were doing humanity a favour by ridding the world of vermin.
Perhaps hate pedlars are scared that they will peter into irrelevance once their wares become unfashionable. So they hawk hate on street corners, in beer parlours, at the hilltop, in seedy tribal conclaves, anywhere and everywhere they pollute with their hate-filled presence. If only they realise that there are many good things to celebrate about other people too!
The Scottish may have differences with the English but you won’t catch them vending hate.
Have these haters not heard of one gentleman called Booker T. Washington who was born into slavery in the deep south of the United States and became the leading voice of the former slaves and their descendants? It was that same man who said, “I shall allow no man to belittle my soul by making me hate him”.
Beware, Mr and Mrs Tribalist, you may yet fall on your own sword. If your level of hate is such that you wish the object of your derision dead, be warned - because God uses the foolish things of this world to shame the wise. Has it ever occurred to you that the same person you wish dead may attend your own funeral? MY VOTE FOR MAGU Frankly, I don’t see why Ibrahim Magu should not be confirmed as Chairman of the EFCC by the Senate. He has brought new vigour to the difficult job of hunting down our galaxy of eminent thieves and economic saboteurs. That is what his job description demands. Even if a few members of the political elite don’t like Magu’s face, I wager that MOST NIGERIANS WANT HIM CONFIRMED AS EFCC CHAIRMAN!