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Wednesday, July 3, 2013

National Mirror: Mitigating Nigeria’s ethnic politics

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National Mirror
All the Facts | All the Sides
Mitigating Nigeria's ethnic politics
Jul 3rd 2013, 23:02, by FRY NDUBUISI

There is hardly any state in the modern world that is not confronted with problems of ethnicity. It is a common phenomenon in Africa. The West has reasonably coped with this social virus that is a clog in the wheel of progress of many countries.

The USA, the world's lone super power and strongest economy was faced with this scourge at its earlier stage of nationhood. But it is to the credit of its founding fathers and the tenacity of the minority groups that such issue is almost irrelevant in its today's power and political relations. It could be said unequivocally that merit underlines the conduct of its life, with room, however, for accommodating the interests of the weak.

In Africa, ethnic problem has haunted us at all levels. It has been the bane of Nigeria. With close to 250 ethnic groups, evolving a system that will assist in mediating and neutralizing its negative effects has been problematic. It was in an attempt to sort out the evil of this virus that the Federal Government introduced the National Youth Service Corps scheme soon after the civil war.

It was hoped then that the scheme would nurture and blossom the seed of unity and tolerance sown by the government. Forty years of implementation has shown that the NYSC scheme has not achieved this primary objective. Many youths still long for it basically because it is now an escape, albeit a temporary one, from the biting scourge of unemployment.

With the brutal murder of serving corps members in 2011, the scheme has become endangered with many question marks hanging over its continuous relevance. Regrettably, time, association, experience and even interethnic marriages have not helped in mediating the destructive forces of ethnicity in Nigeria. Our return to democracy has intensified the clash of centrifugal forces in the country.

List all the ethnic-based political acronyms in the country; they help to strength the fears that Nigerian is gradually going unpatched. Probably for administrative and political convenience, the country was partitioned into zones. That could be applied positively to ensure that the nation lives to the spirit and letters of the constitution as provided in Chapter Two of the 1999 Constitution.

This is to ensure that no group is disadvantaged. Paradoxically, however, zoning has become an albatross for the country. It is the dominant factor for determining who will be the country's President.

With Odua People's Congress (OPC), Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND), Egbesu, Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) and the likes, it is obvious that we are not yet ready to build a strong nation, united with the same vision and a common destiny. The fight is who controls the resources at the centre.

There is no clear articulated agenda on how to move the nation forward. Every group, every ethnic sect is clamoring to be at the centre. That is the power house where, who gets what is determined.

The founders of this nation foresaw this problem; that was why they insisted on a federal system. It worked marvelously in the First Republic; all the regions were up and doing and this manifested in development in the regions.

The military intervention in our socioeconomic and political life halted our solid and steady march to greatness. Now we are entangled in this quagmire. It has become obvious the political union is a good example of a marriage that has broken down almost irretrievably; nobody or group is mustering the will power to remedy the situation, yet we are unwilling to end the marriage.

Rather we overheat the polity with banal statements, and many from the so-called elder statesmen. There have been calls for national dialogue, the panacea to the bad situation at hand.

The reluctance of the Presidency to this is difficult to fathom. A gathering of the nation's divergent ethnic nationalities appears the best option now. It is reasoned that a return to a true federalism could do the magic for us. There is no zone in the country that does not have what it requires to make life meaningful for its inhabitants. If we are courageous enough to do this, the tension in the land will be reasonably diffused.

The human and material waste presently going on all over the country, especially in the North is regrettable. We must channel our energy and resources to productive engagements for the interest of our teeming population and generations yet unborn. In reality we should be in a hurry to move forward and catch up with developed nations. We can ill afford all the negative forces that work against our collective destiny. Prof. Ndubuisi, an attorney at law, is of the Dept of Philosophy, UNILAG

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