Ethnicity – Nigeria’s ultimate hurdle (1)

For me it has been painful to watch these 2015 elections. To some, this view might seem unnecessarily negative and pessimistic. After all, these elections have been lauded for the ‘peaceful’ transition of power to the opposition, and for being apparently irregularity-free. Yes, if these claims are cause for celebration, so be it. My gripe however isn’t to do with the quality of the electoral process, nor is it to do with the evidential basis for saying it was irregularity-free. It is not even to do with that annoying cliché that ‘change’ has come – as though all it takes to realize change in Nigeria is for a former dictator, however much a man of integrity, to be voted president. No, my problem is with our attitudes towards politics.

I understand that my views will offend some people and that is okay. People have as much right to be offended, as I have to hold opinions that might offend them. Still, it is important that I make a few disclaimers: First, I am not aligned with the APC or PDP – it is my view that these parties are two sides of the same coin. Second, I did support GMB (at least sentimentally) but only because I felt it was materially important that the public be made to believe that they could change their leaders if they wanted. Lastly, my views are my own, they are flawed and limited to the extent of my knowledge – I do not claim to have superior knowledge of Nigerian politics and I do not speak for anyone but myself.

Consider this, in Nigeria we are not guided by economic objectivity when deciding how to allocate our resources. No, on the federal level we must first deal with the fact that statutory allocations are a matter of ethnic and geo-political concerns. We must first contend that our brothers and sisters in Kano will rage against allocations to Lagos on grounds of possessing a ‘larger population’ – in spite of Lagos being the economic centre of the country and obviously commanding greater priority. At the same time, it is more important that tiny states like Akwa-Ibom with relatively small populations receive bulky allocations, not for economic reasons but because oil is extracted there. Within every state we find dated intertribal power sharing agreements, if we derive the governor from one tribe, another tribe must derive the governor next time round – OR ELSE! I used to scoff at this ethnic malarkey thinking that as a Lagosian (and yes, I am a Lagosian, I was brought up here) I was distant of all of it. Now I hear that the Oba of Lagos would have me thrown in the Lagoon if I vote for Agbaje – though I am not Igbo, I too am to return to Onitsha if I don’t like his threats. He speaks as though Lagos today is the singular effort of himself and his people.

Not to labour this point on the Oba’s comments but I am struck by how many young, conscientious and, to my mind, cosmopolitan people share in or sympathise with his views. I recently debated this issue with a friend of mine. It is worth noting that this friend of mine is as much Nigerian as I am Chinese. He is Nigerian in the sense of having been born and schooled entirely in the UK by Nigerian parents who were also born and schooled in the UK. Now he works in Nigeria and has the telling tendency to remind everyone that he is a Nigerian-born Briton – a feature that I have come to learn is something of a fashion among affluent Nigerians. In any case, this fine friend rejected the Oba’s comments as ‘excessive’ (in the same way that you might say genocide is excessive); he proceeded to explain to me why he felt that though the Oba’s comments were ‘excessive’, his frustrations were legitimate.

First, he pointed out that the Yorubas had a track record of transparent and accountable leadership relative to other ethnic groups. Then he asserted that the fact that we all lived and worked in Lagos (as opposed to Kano or Port Harcourt) was evidence of superior Yoruba leadership. In his view, the ‘economic miracle of Lagos’ (and I am quoting here) was obviously the direct consequence or superior Yoruba leadership, and the fact that other ethnicities were allowed to decide who ran Lagos was genuinely unfair to the Yorubas given that such would not be allowed in Anambra or Enugu (I wonder if it will be allowed in Ekiti or Oyo). The question was about who could best run Lagos. The mere suggestion that non-Yorubas could sway the election in the PDPs favour was reason enough for him to support the APC.

Eskor Toyo