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On Antagonism and Stereotyping
Hadiza Wada, DBA …July 2, 2011
There are images
and stereotypes that are commonly employed to describe the average native
resident of Northern Nigeria as being uneducated, lazy, unproductive etc. The origin of that propaganda of
ethnic hatred you would find among the residents of South Western Nigeria most
especially. I say the origin, because
today some other ethnic and religious groups who share less values with the
average Northern Muslim, have jumped on the bandwagon, going as far as making it
unnecessary for the original antagonist to fight such unjust battle himself. The original antagonist, who first
lighted that ethnic hatred fire, has thus folded his arms while continuing to
watch the carnage from afar.
For those of us
whose knowledge and experience about Northern Nigeria goes decades back and
since then we have been living abroad, we have difficulties understanding why
majority of the native residents of Northern Nigeria today have by themselves
accepted those stereotypes as facts.
If they have not accepted it verbally, at least subliminally they have, because
their actions and some of their utterances betray their mindset. This I believe
is what happens to a people who have neglected the crucial responsibility of
taking the time to educate themselves, in order to be able to distinguish
between facts and fantasy. One does not have to throw in the towel, i.e. give in
to massive propaganda
Continuous
objective research, its documentation, and the application of the dividends of
that body of knowledge in improving the lives of any community, is an important
and integral part of contemporary life. The neglect of that responsibility, as
far as the Northern residents of Nigeria are concerned, should be placed
squarely on the shoulders of the victims of that stereotypical ridicule. You may
not have to work on convincing anyone away from an unjust stereotyping if you so
choose, but there is no excuse whatsoever, to accept and proactively go along
that negative track in a way that proves those stereotypical labeling.
Out of the three
stereotypical components, the only one that has some basis in fact is the
“uneducated” one, because surely to date a number of factors have combined to
keep in place the wide disparity between the percentage of the population from
the Northern part of the Country and those from the South that have acquired
some reasonable educational achievement. Southern Nigeria does have about forty
years head start in the acquisition and internalization of Western type
education because their experience with European contact and subsequent
occupation started in the 1860s as against the North’s 1901. Next is the high
level of incidents of fake educational certificates, and certifications,
emanating from the residents of the South as opposed to those of the North
making the disproportionate percentage figure doubtful. All the same, there is
absolutely no excuse for the continuous disparity. Even the mindset about the
possibilities and opportunities that education may provide, is quite different
when you talk to residents of the Northern vs. those of the Southern part of the
country.
But for the
other two stereotypical labeling i.e. “lazy” and “unproductive,” it is more hype
than real. The media militancy by the “Southern” press which began long before
the nation won its independence, concentrating on fighting colonialism, turned
against the “Northern” part of the country since self-government was won, with
the ordinary Northern resident being seen as the new “foreigner.” Though common
across the Southern region, you will usually find such negative campaign coming
more from South Western Press than any other.
And it does not have to be that way, for even though all regions of the
country were against colonialism and were active participants in fighting it,
tribalism and antagonism does not have to turn that victory into a curse for the
new nation. Most of the nation’s political quagmire today can also be reasonably
pinned to that unnecessary antagonism fanned by a subjective press.
Lazy and
unproductive are two words with common root meaning. The general usage connotes that one
does not contribute his individual share of responsibilities within a group. If among coworkers, it means while
the others are busy doing their assigned jobs, the lazy unproductive one lies
around doing nothing, or at the worst if it is teamwork, everyone else is doing
their work including his because he fails to meet his share of the work. If that definition is to be applied,
then the opposite may be the case.
Crude oil that the nation relies on primarily today is a natural resource found
underground, and was not made by any Nigerian.
It is also an exhaustible resource.
The nation however has relied all these years before the discovery of oil
in 1958, on other export commodities especially those tilled above the
ground, or else raised [most especially cattle] by Northern Nigerians.
[See Groundnut Pyramid image from December
1965, courtesy Smithsonian Institution]. And it is not only groundnuts
[peanuts] that was mass produced for export up North, Cotton was also an
important commodity produced all over Northern Nigeria. Hides and Skins
[leather]. Among the excavated are
Tin and Columbite North; Coal mainly in the East [Obudu highlands], etc.
For the sake of
widening the discourse, I posed the same question to some of the people I had
the privilege of interviewing for the Optimist Voice’s upcoming 2011 Book. A Senior Educational Research
Official from Arewa House, whose primary area of focus is fact finding on
Northern developmental issues, Mallam Shuaib Aliyu, says outright he knows
calling the average Northerner lazy is wrong. One of the issues, that has thrown
the country into the quagmire it finds itself, in Mr. Aliyu’s opinion, is the
combining together by the colonial administration of people of two divergent
backgrounds into one nation, at one point in time, and then expecting that they
find a harmonious way of living productively together.
That aside, some
aspects of the imbalance could be explained by the way in which the colonial
government favored the Southern Part of Nigeria for the simple reason that they
share religious values. But
initially before the discovery of oil, Northern Nigeria was by far a more
vibrant economy, and has strong established systems that gave the Nigerian
economy the strength needed to maintain the nation. They have not been lazy even at those
times up until today. Literally the whole of Nigerian economy during colonial
times even before amalgamation of Northern and Southern Nigeria in 1914 and
beyond, at least from the perspective of the exploitative British colonial
economic system, revolves around what Northern Nigeria produces in abundance.
It was only
after the discovery of oil that the percentage of contribution to the economy of
the country shifted. Even then it
was not the doing of the people themselves but the national [federal] government
policies that followed which almost totally neglected issues surrounding those
former means of generating foreign exchange in favor of a simpler and easier way
of achieving the same thing, i.e. oil exploration and exploitation.
And to date, all
the food produced and consumed within the country’s borders, with the exception
of imports here and there, including its grains [corn, rice, millet, sorghum,
wheat], and its fruits oranges, mangos, guava, cashews etc.; its vegetables
potatoes, tomatoes, onions, pepper etc. along with the accompanying dairy
farming and provision of cow meat, sheep, goats, milk and other dairy product
are all provided from the Northern part of the country. Mr. Aliyu posed this question to me
“How can we feed the bubbling millions of the country’s population in almost all
of its aspects and be called lazy.
This is a labeling that has no basis in fact.”
Partially
however, according to the researcher, we have identified some few problems that
has helped feed into those lies. They all have one common source, lack of
motivation. Governments everywhere
in the world are burdened with finding ways and creating policies that help
their economies and system grow productive.
But this is generally lacking.
All new developments including politics imported to replace what people
are used to, do not come along with policies and avenues that make them
productive, therefore people are left to find ways of coping with them.
One of the
unique problems is that only in the Northern part of the country do you find
people turning politics into livable profession and a means of earning lasting
income. They do not come into it to
leave it when necessary and get along with their lives, it therefore created
certain problems. When you come out in
the morning people troop to the politician, thinking the primary connection with
their politicians is personal, not tackling political, economic, and social
issues, and holding the politicians responsible for what they are doing or not
doing to benefit the community. As such
developmental issues have been relegated to a less deserving position
priority-wise. People not used to modern political systems are generally at a
loss about where to take their crucial developmental issues, who to contact and
how to do it.
Another habit
responsible for that impression lies with our local government administrations,
who make virtually no efforts at all to find the unique advantages of their
local government areas in terms of tapping into available resources in ways that
provide not only local income and goods, but also employment to their teeming
population. Today the focus of such
politicians all over the nation, not just the Northern parts has been corruption
and ways to feed into that disease, much more than development of the nation and
its people. People elected into
positions never come in with any vision or plan to work and tap into all these
resources.
I can assure you
without any iota of doubt that Northern Nigeria can live on its own comfortably,
says Aliyu. It is beyond doubt. If every local government chairman
will come in with a simple vision of investing just ten million Naira of his
area’s income a month into making his local unit productive, in about ten years
you do not have to rely on the federation account. For example you can establish cottage
industries that will take advantage of your local resource and produce it
en-mass, in such ways that soon you export such products statewide, nationally,
and internationally. So in short our
local governments today may not have the vision necessary for full gainful
development, but our people are not lazy.
The Optimist
Voice interviewer then sought to understand another dimension of the discussion. What about the loss of the only
expertise that Northern Nigeria brings to the table in Nigerian make up, i.e.
political know how. We do know the
strength of every section of the Nigerian population. The native residents of Eastern
Nigeria lead every ethnic group in the nation in commercial enterprise, i.e.
production and distribution of essential products. Except for white-collar [office]
jobs, Western Nigerians are culturally more into middlemen trading than any
creative production as the Igbos, and the Northerners lead the way in Politics
[strong administrative and leadership skills].
Today the Northern residents have been convinced to abdicate, and leave
political leadership to others who may not have the necessary leadership skills,
nor the necessary numbers for ultimate policy support in a one man one vote
democracy. They now, through
manipulation of the electoral votes, not the will of the electorate allow anyone
come in and test the waters in providing the country’s leadership, regardless of
ability, aptitude, and the required population.
On the issue
just raised above, Mallam Salisu has this to say.
“It is nothing new.” He
blamed the present lack of tact and dedication of present regional leadership,
but puts the blame for actively working to achieve that very goal primarily on
the leadership of Western [Yoruba speaking] Nigeria. Since the first administration after
independence, Mr. Obafemi Awolowo, the major Politician of the West [Yoruba
land] has been a strong advocate of dividing and disorganizing Northern Nigeria.
Every major freedom fighter at his level, regardless of tribe and religion, has
realized a major national position or role after independence, except him. His combatant tribal politics made it
almost impossible for him to penetrate any other region except his, and also
made it impossible for him to reach his national dream. Very early in Nigerian politics,
Awolowo advocated and convinced some Northern Nigerians such as Joseph Tarka
from the middle belt region of Nigeria to form a separate regional political
party called the UMBC so he can use it to challenge what he termed “the far
north” and most especially, its most popular Political party the NPC.
During that
particular time, continues Mr. Aliyu, Joseph Tarka understood the machinations
and therefore chose to align himself to major Northern interests whenever
necessary, by working at such times alongside the Sardauna. Though from different religions, such
early leaders from residents of Northern Nigeria have never shied away from the
fundamental fact that they have local, regional, as well as national interests
which should not necessary conflict each other. So the non-Muslim Northern
residents cooperate fully on regional interest at those times. Awolowo worked
openly towards the breakdown of that cooperative interest, but primarily failed.
In the same vain
the North then went ahead and paid Awolowo in his coin by working towards the
creation of the Mid-Western region, and succeeded. Another reason partially
responsible for the successful maintenance of the North as one physical entity
at that time, was not just the working of the Northern Regional Administrator,
the Sardauna, [Sir Ahmadu Bello] and other political allies of the North, but
because as a unit it has a long history spanning many more years of unitary
coexistence, than the artificial make up what constitutes Southern Nigeria.
As discussed by Dr. Tilde in his three segment article that focused on the
problem titled “Poor Northerners” the average resident of the South West has
failed to liberate his mind from tribalism and its baseless labeling. Such mindset, he writes, is common
not only among the less educated but also among the intellectuals. Professor Dahiru Yahya, a Professor
of History from Bayero University Kano seems to agree when he writes in 2001
during the Shari’ah controversy that:
“The underestimation of Muslim consciousness by the Yoruba Christians that extends to many other Southern Christians in a serious intellectual misunderstanding. They assume that the frugality of the Muslim in the modern sector is a reflection of Muslim lack of consciousness. They also think that the Muslim chain of command corresponds to the social hierarchy that is apparent in the traditional set up in Muslim society, and can therefore be exploited to serve their national interests using Muslims in government. The danger of misconception is that it leads to unpleasant surprises and invariably to wrong conclusions.” [Prof. Dahiru Yahya, 2001]
The vindication
of the statement presented itself not long ago, during the riots that followed
the Nigerian general elections.
During that time, we witnessed the masses of the people up North rise furiously
against those they feel were directly involved in their oppression [local and
far]. They expressed their frustration with the circumvention and manipulation
of their political will, the continuous compromising of their right to security
of life and property etc., sparing not even their topmost religious figure for
centuries, the Sultan of Sokoto. Never in the history of Nigeria has such rage
by Muslims directly threaten the office of their ceremonial religious figure.
The Catastrophic Effects of Organized Antagonism
In contrast to
what has been described as the Awolowo style of politics, Mallam Sa’adu Zungur,
an avid anti-colonialism freedom fighter from Bauchi in Northern Nigeria, and a
notable political activist who also fought intellectually and politically
against local authorities that were not fair to their citizens, is a typical
example of the type of impartial participation that Northern residents provided
to the nation. As a freedom fighter, his political ideas were both for local
emancipation of the ordinary citizen, as well as national emancipation of every
Nigerian. He therefore worked local, but with a strong alliance on the national
level [national interest based] with the Eastern Nigerian Top Freedom fighter of
his days, Dr. Nnamdi Azikwe. In fact
not only did his write-ups appear in the Northern press of his times like the
Nigerian Citizen [Kaduna based], his
most controversial and meaningful write-ups on national issues were published by
Dr. Azikwe’s Weekly Magazine The West
African Pilot, [Enugu based]. Sa’ad
Zungur a native resident of Northern Nigeria was a columnist for that Eastern
region’s most popular magazine.
In his speech at
the 1948 NCNC convention, Zungur stressed the need to work towards achieving
tribal unity in tandem with the struggle to achieve independence. He pointed at some divisive
tendencies that were rearing their head mainly among some “Lagos Yoruba” and
fanned by the colonialists. “As a step towards this I humbly suggest that an
organization to be known as “National Society for Inter-tribal Understanding, to
be formed within the ranks of NCNC, which will establish branches all over the
country.” He asserted that there are
Nigerians bent on frustrating efforts to unite the people towards the united
goal of emancipation and self-rule.
Precisely he wrote “Sometime ago I published a series of two articles in the
West African Pilot in which I accused
certain Lagos Yoruba leaders and certain sections of the local press of
maliciously fanning the embers of tribal hatred and attempting to create ill
will between Ibos and Yoruba’s.”
Zungur could not see any profitable angle in further dividing the freedom
fighters on tribal grounds, for whatever reason.
Finally, just as
I said earlier in this same write-up about the residents of Northern Nigeria;
i.e. that there is absolutely no excuse for him to allow such disparity in
educational achievement to remain in place for half a century after
independence, in the same coin, there is absolutely no excuse for Southwestern
residents to insist that the nation would have to follow a dissected,
disjointed, divisive and hateful antagonistic assault half a century down the
road, against any other citizen of the same nation. Though it is typical that
one’s cultural parameters usually determine how he initially reacts to anything
new, it has been fifty plus years post-independence. Any people who cannot turn around a
negative trait that entrap its own people within a divisive mind set, unable to
connect reasonably with any ethnic group socially and politically for half a
century need to seriously reexamine themselves.
What we advocate
is that Nigerians understand the kind of hurt that such divisions artificially
created causes to development and lives of every single Nigerian either directly
or indirectly. We have to understand
that national interest and coexistence as a nation regardless of our
differences, be its religious, cultural, language etc., is supreme, for without
it all those differential basis suffer ultimately. It is unwise to make such divisions
and hinge everything on it, while hypocritically you find that when it comes to
corruption and looting of the treasury the same people who advocate division
fully cooperate with each other, across the divide, regardless of their
antagonism. They would usually cover
each other’s tracks, so they could escape accountability and benefit from the
ill-gotten loot.
Looking at
history, though merged from different backgrounds by the British to form a
single country, most Nigerian ethnic groups started working with each other
almost right away. The seeds of
coexistence have previously been sawn by the previous nationalist that fought
for Nigeria’s independence. They
worked tediously to find ways of working and achieving together as a nation. It was reported, for example, that in
those early days of Nigerian history as a nation, when the Sardauna of Northern
Nigeria and Dr. Nnamdi Azikwe of the East were engaged in discussions that seem
a little difficult, Azikwe was reported to have said to Sardauna “let us forget
our differences” [apparently to move along and make progress on an issue], but
to which Sardauna replied, “No, let us understand and learn from our
differences.” If I take the time to
understand you culturally as an Ibo man who works within the confines of
Catholicism, I could understand where you stand on issues better and your
limitations, so also can you understand mine when you put them within the
concept of what my limitations are.
We can then easily work together and achieve much that way.
In the same
coin, Northern Nigerians today with all their complexities have to find ways of
understanding each other and their limitations, so they can form common grounds
and goals with which to create a bridge across to others. Partially that lack of deeper
knowledge and understanding of themselves and their background is what opens
northern residents to exploitation by those who have no interest in the lives
and harmony of the region, allowing them to use sentiments of religion and
ethnicity to cause serious divisions and insecurity for everyone including their
local regional collaborators. The regional collaborators of our South Western
brothers, especially those who define themselves commonly as Middle-Belters,
find it hard to realize that they gain nothing from their collaboration, and
that they are being sheepishly used against even their own personal interest
ultimately.
All things being
equal, democracy is a game of numbers. You have to learn the art of negotiation.
When you have the population as residents of Northern Nigeria do, you have to
sit down and set your priorities straight and plan forward. Then use it to negotiate your way
onwards. Nobody can do much without coming back to the people with the numbers. Even the issue of this zoning has no
basis in democracy. If the majority
are determined they have to do it [which actually is not the case, as no one
consulted the electorate], then people should never lose sight of their
priorities because they still control the numbers. No door should be opened that
provides you no benefit, in a political negotiating table.
Perpetrators of
such divisive and destructive tendencies have bragged about the political
victory of entrenching rotational presidency, which the first of its benefactors
was in fact ethnically from the same South-West area. Rotational Presidency was realized
because regionally the electoral majority group have lost their focus, and it
was literally jumped on them by a political party at the last minute. If the nation had developed a fair
electoral system that actualizes the will of the electorate without
manipulations, may be that arrangement will cause less harm.
Presently
however, people imbued with personal aggrandizement, self-centeredness, and
manipulations for getting rich at all costs are deluding themselves as to the
possibility that rotational presidency could ultimately work. It has never been employed by any
nation because it has no merit in fact and yields no substantive results. It has continued to generate tension
since its employment, increasing in intensity and waiting for a ripe time to
explode.
Series to continue as time and space permits.