Zoning: Our Progress – by Ofor Aluka

Ofor aluka

“We live in one country, chant the same National Anthem but we are far from being one. The real ethnic anthem is hidden in our hearts, in our deeds and in our impure thoughts against the other Nigerian.” This is a quote in the back page of The Nation of August 28, 2009.

Before I read this mot, I was well convinced of my sectarian inclination. As Elechi Amadi noted in his book, Sunset in Biafra; It is an innate characteristics of man to disagree and to remain inward as much as it favours the individual. That even when we identify a tribe to stamp our feet for, we seek a slimmer enclave in our particular dialect, our village, our household and, ultimately, our individual self. Hence, we do things – even sacrifice – because it favours us. In the book, which is Elechi’s personal account of the single most significant factor in the history of the country Nigeria, the Nigeria – Biafra Civil War, the author explained how ethnic idiosyncrasy led to an outburst of insincerity and the consequent apprehension. And how war was fought ostensibly on the line of flimsy differences.

Many years on, The Nation reminds me that there is greater allegiance to our different tongues than to a collective fate as Nigeria. In Ibafo, Ogun State, on the August 29, I experienced a very subtle form of tribalism. “Talk to him, he’s from your place.” That was how a police sergeant preferred to shift negotiation to a superior officer. It is a common assumption of most of us that a police officer is supposed to show leniency based on ethnic affinity. It is such assumption that magnifies into nepotism and cronyism in public service. Where we fail to coerce an official on sectional sentiments such a person is usually termed mean. It has weakened the effectiveness of institutions and caused avoidable conflict over what works and what doesn’t. Again, in all such acts lies an elusive egoism.
We may accept that patriarchs as Awolowo bore sincere tribal sentiments. However, nothing about today’s realities; politics and society tells of an agenda that will see our children in good public schools or promote infrastructural development, peace and harmony. Instead, the ordinary Nigerian is incited to worry about personal interests in the name of federal character and wolf cries of sectional plot.

Unfortunately, the comfort of perceiving every social revelation in the nation from the prism of our own tribes or state does not make anyone of us better. It has not made us free neither has it given us better education, roads, hospitals, utilities, and security. It has not provided us good governance. What it has done is impress on us a dangerous belief in zoning which does nothing but make ridicule of our claimed democracy. It is immature, to say the least, to insist that a good candidate should not get his/her chance anytime solely because of where the person comes from. It has caused, beyond elections, cluster democracy. By holding on to sectarian instincts, and to its extent our selfishness, we diminish our options to progress.

Furthermore, any clamour for equality and fairness on the prong of regional emotions will be hiding the seriousness of such quest. An instance is the Niger-Delta struggle which looks more like an extension of indigene syndrome. Indigene syndrome, I will explain, is the believe that any activity within ones native home should pay economically. It is what boys in Edo State evoke to extort money from motorists using tracks that run through their villages to avoid gullies in Ore-Benin road. It can hardly find genuine support. Worsened by the obvious selfishness and greed of the so called champions of the people. The lucre the make from bunkering or steal with the pen does more to buy champagne and luxury mobile phones than to provide for those whose sake their case attract a hint of sympathy.
We can begin to appreciate a collective destiny by containing our self-interest and allow ourselves the contentment of sacrifice. We must resist the urge to judge on the basis of tribe or religion but on the strength of individual character and the fundamental merit or demerit of a cause. This should be the way forward.

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