FEAR OF DOMINATION AND THE NIGERIAN CONDITION BY M A C ODU I have observed that through the past sixty years of my conscious existence as a citizen the main problem of the country is fear of domination by each of the main tribal groups. There is no nation yet in the psyche of leadership elite. This fear has sunken so deep into the consciousness of Nigerians on account of mere lip service to need of unity. Deep within, ethnic groups are frightened of the future of their own specie of humanity being worsted in this country of amazing array of culture, levels of diligence and capacity for being productive in contemporary idiom. The combat between ethnic groups was ignited by colonialists who feared the south for their early acquaintance with tenets of Western Democratic Institutions which resulted in initial resistance to domination from the south. The south was more receptive to Western Education. In their advertence to resources colonists favoured the northern elite, who were vastly more accommodative, more receptive to leadership of the colonists and more pliable to their main quest of expropriation and exploitation of our vast resources. They did not plan on leaving within the rather short time frame during which local resistance to their control sent them packing. Had they been circumspect enough they ought to have factored in some love for the people they exploited. They did not. Their main mission loomed large and their intellect found division as sure route to perpetuating their domination of a system comprising of disparate groups. We were brought together for their gain not for our welfare. Belated confessions have proven them deliberate exploiters of our commonwealth with little interest in welfare of the exploited. They were bound to be transient wayfarers from this angle. They have in consequence shepherded us into a country without love for the country. This has lived on in the psyches of most parts of the country. The north recently feels incapable of competing for power following errors of incapacity to grow their people through Western Education. Their middle incomes have known a yawning gap through decades. The fright of losing in nebulous competition has driven the afflicted youth into desperation. The recent clamour for southerners to leave is the outcrop of weighing of advantages which they had in the past against their current standing in a fast changing world of Information and Communications Technology, which their Islamic culture finds distances them further from the south. Their revolt against Western Education is logical on this account. But that is an error. No one should resist change because it is a disadvantage. Change is a phenomenon which humanity as a whole has accepted as constant. Those who resist change are bound for the dustbin of history. The world thrives on speed of communication and power of machines to replace human exertion and depersonalize activities. What will matter in civilization into the far future is how happy a group of people continue to be. Hatred of people who hook on to higher and higher levels of productivity cannot be a positive course of any group of people. The appropriate solution is to set up infrastructure to domesticate such products of Western Education and Technology as will bring higher and higher levels of fulfillment and happiness to as many people as possible. Basic Western Education is the only route. We have no indigenous answer beyond running along with them until we make their technology our culture. Dragging people into the past is hardly an answer to the ever-increasing fruits of technology. Driving through three thousand and five hundred kilometers of Nigeria in the past four weeks revealed that the north is endowed with so much land that could feed Africa if properly tended with appropriate technology. I saw the first level of mechanization on the trip. Bulls were used to till vast farms. This happened before the Industrial Revolution in Europe. I did not see many tractors and accompanying equipments that could lead to large scale food production. By contrast, my visit to France and Italy last year saw vast hectarage of farms of various produce ranging from fruits to grains manned by small families with the whole gamut of machines and equipment in the management of nuclear families. A family of three or four tilled, planted and in due season harvested square kilometers of farm land and sent produce so harvested to cooperative centres where they are taken over and marketed in good condition across the world. That is where the north should be headed. Koranic Education alone cannot take them there. They must domesticate technology and to do that they must embrace Western Education. They must be forced into it out of love for them as countrymen in spite of the posture of disdain which the current revolt of the lower classes seems to portend. The fear of domination by rival ethnic groups has hurt Nigeria too deeply already. Time has come when credit and room should be given to people in accordance with their endowments, with love and unwavering commitment to the welfare of all.
Posted on: Sun, 20 Jul 2014 10:39:12 +0000
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