Inter-ethnic dialogue is the first step towards Nigerian unity

‘ Trying to get people to do something by sticking revolver in their ribs can only produce forced acquiescence rather than genuine compliance based on conviction about the rightness or legitimacy of the cause

There is a book that every politician and ethnic leader in Nigeria must read if they really care about this country’s unity. It is Dale Carnegie’s international best-selling book “How to Win Friends and Influence People”, first published in 1937. Surely, President Muhammadu Buhari must read this book to learn how to manage Nigeria’s diversity.

The truth is that President Buhari lacks the ability to manage Nigeria’s diversity. He cannot coalesce the country’s diverse ethnic interests around a common national identity. President Buhari prefers to give orders and talk tough than to negotiate and persuade! He frequently reminds Nigerians that, as a young military officer, he fought for Nigeria’s unity during the civil war, and, thus, would brook no dissent on its unity. Which is why his reflex response is to send soldiers to quell separatist agitations in the country. But if Nigeria’s fragile unity has to be maintained through military force, the ensuing peace can only be the peace of the graveyard. Trying to get people to do something by sticking revolver in their ribs can only produce forced acquiescence rather than genuine compliance based on conviction about the rightness or legitimacy of the cause.

Thus, a key principle in Dale Carnegie’s book is that to get people to do something, you must make them to want to do it. How? Well, as Carnegie puts it, “The only way on earth to influence other people is to talk about what they want and show them how to get it”. Surely, then, if President Buhari wants to promote Nigeria’s unity and get Nigerians to embrace that unity, he needs to follow Carnegie’s ad

vice, namely he must become genuinely interested in what most Nigerians want and help them to get it.

And what do most Nigerians want? Well, in relation to the unity of Nigeria, it is political restructuring. Other issues, including security, flow from that! Recently, Chief Afe Babalola, a highly respected Nigerian lawyer and elder statesman, said that restructuring is “a solution to Nigeria’s problem”, adding that it would give Nigeria a “truly people’s federal constitution” and address most of its structural defects. As he puts it, “Take it or leave it, Nigeria is a country of nations. We have to harmonise these nations and allow a Nation to evolve from the way we run the governemt”. Chief Emeka Anyaoku, another respected elder statesman and former secretary-general of the Commonwealth, also said that restructuring Nigeria, through devolution of powers, is the only way to successfully manage the country’s diversity. All the ethnic groups in the South and the Middle Belt have strongly called or restructuring Nigeria.

So, given the groundswell of support for restructuring, if Buhari were to follow Carnegie’s advice, he would accept the imperative and provide the leadership to achieve it. President Buhari himself said he recognised the need for a “true federalism” but, to date, has kept his own counsel to himself on the issue. That’s not how to unite a country. He must be seen actively to drive the agenda by initiating and leading a national dialogue on it. Buhari can’t simply ignore the issue of restructuring if he wants to engender unity in this country.

Which brings me to inter-ethnic conflicts in Nigeria. The obvious truth is that Nigeria is a deeply divided and polarised country, and recent events have pushed Nigeria closer to the precipice. In particular, the ethnic colouration and tribal hijacking of President Muhammadu Buhari’s plan to establish rural grazing areas, RUGA, across the country, and the brutal killing of Mrs Funke Olakunri, daughter of Chief Rueben Fasoranti, leader of the Yoruba socio-cultural group Afenifere, by suspected Fulani herdsmen, could have turned those events into full-blown national crisis, with potentially very profound consequences.

But this is because Nigeria’s ethnic nationalities have not embraced key principles from Carnegie’s book. As a result, Nigeria has become a ticking time bomb, prone to spontaneous explosion. Let’s consider three of Carnegie’s principles in this context. The first is the need to put oneself in another’s position; the second is the need to be sympathetic with the other person’s concerns; and the third is the need to avoid belligerence and brinkmanship.

Take the first principle. Carnegie said that “If you say to yourself. ‘How would I feel, how would I react if I were in his shoes?’, you would save yourself irritation, for by becoming interested in the cause, we are less likely to dislike the effect”. Surely, if Northerners have put themselves in the shoes of Southerners, who are rampantly being killed by Fulani herdsmen, they would understand why the South opposed President Buhari’s plan to establish cattle colonies in Southern states, and why the Yoruba are deeply angry about the murder of Chief Fasoranti’s daughter by suspected Fulani herdsmen.

But when a so-called Coalition of Northern Groups gave Southerners a 30-day ultimatum to accept RUGA or face the consequences and when the Northern Elders Forum ridiculed the Yoruba for their justifiable anger over the killing of Chief Fasoranti’s daughter, they certainly did not put themselves in the Southerners’ shoes. Professor Ango Abdullahi, leader of the Norther Elders Forum, said “We are worried about their (the Fulani herdsmen) wellbeing”, adding: “The bottom line is that their safety is far more important that staying there”. Clearly, the Northern Elders Forum care about the safety of the Fulani herdsmen, their people, but why do they not also care about the wellbeing and safety of the Southerners, who the herdsmen are killing? Well, the answer is simple: they couldn’t put themselves in the Southerners’ shoes.

Surely, if the Northern leaders could put themselves in the Southerners’ shows, they would follow another principle in Carnegie’s book, namely, to show sympathy with the other person’s concerns. According to Carnegie, there is a “magic phrase” that can eliminate illfeeling. Here it is: “I don’t blame you one iota for feeling as you do. If I were you, I would undoubtedly feel just as you do”. Can you imagine if the Northern leaders had said to the Yoruba leaders, “We do not blame you for being angry over the activities of the criminal herdsmen, if we were you, we would feel the same way”? That would have done a lot to reduce inter-ethnic tension between the Yoruba and the Hausa/fulani leaders. Instead, the Northern leaders decided to pour salt in the Yoruba’s wounds, wounds that their people caused!

Which brings us to the last relevant principle of Carnegie: the need to avoid bellicosity inhuman relationships. Your belligerent tones, your hostile attitude, willnot make it easy for others to agree with you, he said. He produced a good quote from Woodrow Wilson, a former US President. “If you come at me with your fists doubled, mine will double as fast as yours”, Wilson said, adding: “But if you come to me and say, ‘Let us sit down and take counsel together, and, if we differ from each other, understand why it is that we differ, just what the points at issue are’, we will perfectly find that we are not so far apart after all, that the points on which we differ are few and the points on which we agree are many, and that if we only have the patience and the candour and the desire to get together, we will get together”.

That’s a long quote from Wilson, but the message is clear. Ethnic belligerence and brinkmanship can tear Nigeria apart. The solution, as the German philosopher Jurgen Habermas, who introduced the phrase “Let’s talk”, suggested, lies in dialogue.

But Nigerians won’t talk unless President Buhari initiates and leads a national dialogue. Certainly, Buhari and Nigeria’s belligerent ethnic leaders have a lot to learn from Carnegie and Habermas!

Dr. Fasan, a London-based lawyer and political economist, is a Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics. e-mail: o.fasan@lse.ac.uk, twitter account: @olu_fasan