OLD CULTURES, NEW COUNTRY
We must be prepared to do what is necessary to make Nigeria work, writes Joshua J. Omojuwa
I am not a fan of reality shows, but spousal pressure, plus the need to be abreast of contemporary affairs have ensured that I watch some of them. I thank my dear wife for creating the environment that makes it possible to lie down to watch these shows. I readily confess that I have enjoyed a few over the years. Interestingly, once I start watching, I want to see the end – the seasonal ones that is. Other than that, watching strangers thrown together in a confined space, with no connection to the outside world and little else to do – as it is with the Big Brother show for example – is an interesting proposition for anyone interested in social psychology. Bearing the different stages of team development in mind, it is usually interesting to see how the community forms, storms, tackles the norming and performing stages before the team coalesces or terminates after the raison d’etre of the team is achieved.
In a certain sense, Nigeria, like every other country, is one massive reality show with her constituent nations at the storming stage of nation- building. What differentiates us from most other countries is that we are a new country formed by old and different civilisations. It is trite that when something alien is introduced into a new environment, there will necessarily be a period of adjustment. When several things are forced to coalesce in the same environment, the result is likely to produce a measure of chaos.
Contrary to popular opinion, Nigeria is a young country. Most of our founding fathers were alive up until two decades ago; a few still are. Our immediate past president Muhammadu Buhari fought in the Biafran war that started just seven years after our independence. As humans, it is understandable when we think that a 62-year-old country is old. How long will we ourselves live anyway?
The Nigerian Civil War, engendered by state formation, ended before our 10th independence anniversary, but Nigeria has not progressed beyond the storming stage to this day. We are still warring, albeit in different forms. There is the tendency to think this is peculiar but it is not. The amalgamation of 1914 forced a union of many civilisations, hundreds of cultures and a myriad of nations such that it would be foolhardy to expect that nation- building will be without fracas. To situate this in proper context, a century from now, everyone who has been involved in the Nigerian story to this point – whether as a state actor or non-state actor – will be deemed to be a founder: it is all about perspective. In 100 years, relative to the age of those considering the issue and the age of the country, people will consider these times Nigeria’s foundational years: it is all relative.
The making of Nigeria still has some ways to go and I mean this in the chronological sense. We are still building the foundations of our forced union. This is why we must not shrink from asking ourselves the tough questions that are required to get things right. We must be comfortable with having the difficult conversations about our union and be prepared to do what is necessary to make this country work. Whatever we believe will upset the future cohesion and prosperity of this country must be done away with today. We cannot succumb to the dangerous “sunk cost” fallacy by assuming that just because a lot of resources have been committed to a certain cause, we must continue with it regardless of its utility. If it is not beneficial to our future, we must change course, no matter how difficult. We must begin to display the courage of our convictions.
The most essential part of a building is its foundation. The foundation determines everything about the building. With the right foundation, you have a lot of structural and design options. With the wrong foundation, you may not start before everything comes crumbling down. This understanding is essential as we progress from storming to forming.
As a state, Nigeria came into being a little over a century ago with the melding of the southern and northern protectorates by imperial fiat. She became self-governing in 1960. In essence, we never got the chance to start shaping the union according to our own realities until about 63 years ago. As we never even agreed to form a union, it is understandable that we have continued to negotiate the past since then. The communal clashes, boundary issues, banditry, resource control and other such challenges are a result of those negotiation and until we deal with the root causes, the issues will continue to feature frequently in our national life. It is possible to simultaneously account for the past and build for the future but we cannot succeed if we do not understand where we are and what we are doing. We cannot trudge along without a firm grasp of the state formation process.
Ancient civilisations existed that traded, fought wars and possessed different identities before being thrown together for the administrative convenience of our so called colonial masters. We are a nation of nations, a country of many nationalities. There is no use denying these differences. I concede that it is easier to build a nation when the people are homogenous, however we can achieve a good measure of success in spite of our diversity.
To get started, we first have to acknowledge and accept our differences; agree that we are bound together as one collective; explore what unites us, and then build the future on the strength of that unity and our diversity. We either thrive together or perish together. And to thrive, we must pay attention to the foundation, be just and equitable and fair to all and sundry. There is no middle ground. And by all means, we must build with the intention for our people to prosper. It is possible. We just need to start.
Omojuwa is chief strategist, Alpha Reach/ author, Digital Wealth Book
