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Tribalism And The Nigerian Model Of Racism by ladon1: 7:49pm On Jun 10, 2016 |
It was my first time in Europe, London to be precise,
and I had gone to check this apartment that was
advertised in the Loot weekly. At that time I was still
living with a relation, and I was quite happy that the
advertised apartment was no more than 100m from
where I was staying. So, I walked up to the indicated
address, rang the doorbell and waited for a response.
After a few seconds the door opened and a male
Caucasian appeared. I'm never going to forget the look
on his face after he discovered that an African had
come to rent the room. He didn't beat about the bush
in informing the room had been taken the next day I
had called as agreed. Well I had expected something
like this from my encounter with him the previous day.
I never quite realised I was Black until that particular
evening. Being a first experience I wasn't sure whether
to be angry, sad, indifferent or simply laugh it off. I
could have gone ahead to brand the whole White race
as racists, but then I would have to account for the
countless kindness and friendship I had met in many
Caucasians that I have come across. A similar incident
occurred about two years ago in Germany, when I had
gone to (again) look up an apartment for rent. I had
this time gone with my colleague and friend, an Indian,
and the German owner bluntly stated she could not
rent the apartment to foreigners.
I live in Europe, and issues like these boardering on
racism are not far-fetched. And expectedly, I had
received calls from friends in Nigeria wanting to know
how I had coped with such. And in my quiet moments
of reflection I have found it outrightly dishonest to put
forth life within the Nigerian boarders as devoid of
similar attitudes from fellow Nigerians. That is, being
Nigerian and living within Nigeria is likely to expose
you to similar treatment from other human beings who
generally consider you as less deserving of certain
considerations for no other reason than you belong to a
different tribe. Or a different religion. I considered our
national politics, where the Northerners famously
claimed power belonged to them. Or should one now
consider the Igbos and the Yorubas who, among others,
would in many cases not give out their children to
marry members of the other tribes?
This might appear trivial, but then it's in context:
during my undergraduate education at Ife an Igbo boy
had blantantly refused to sell an extra bedspace of his
to a non-Igbo student. A Yoruba person close to me had
also jokingly raised an objection to my having an Igbo
female friend.
How about cases where only individuals from
particular families are allowed to monopolise certain
political offices?
We find the same pattern in corporate bodies, in sport,
in education, in health,... in fact, in the entire social
structure we've come to know as Nigeria. What right
do I have then to blame a Caucasian, an Indian, or a
Chinese for discriminating against me for being
African? And historically speaking, what right do we
have as a nation for speaking and standing against
apartheid of South Africa? In my opinion I think we've
spent so long discriminating against fellow Nigerians on
the basis of tribe and religion that this pervertion has
come to be viewed as normal in the Nigerian context.
The picture becomes more deplorable when we
consider that this tribalistic tendencies are daily being
fuelled by the parents, and other respected members of
our societies. How many Nigerians can confidently say
their parents and persons close to them have never
made malicious comments about members of the other
tribes? And when they do this, do we not join in in
laughing against the Hausas, Yorubas,and Igbos, as the
case maybe? |
Re: Tribalism And The Nigerian Model Of Racism by ladon1: 7:51pm On Jun 10, 2016 |
Our entire culture and subcultures have been founded
on this tribal divisioning, how hyprocritical of us to
stand against neo-apartheid in different countries
around the world. Hardly would an unfortunate
incident affecting most of the tribes in the country
occur in some parts of the country and certain tribes
not cry out that it's nothing short of a conspiratorial
cleansing of their tribe. I allude to Boko Haram's
murderous campaign that has seen countless Yorubas,
Hausas, Igbos and other tribes and aliens slain, and yet
some tribe fuelled by a tribal paranoia keep alleging
it's an attempt by Nigeria to expunge them. This in
their case is a a peculiar manifestation of the same
tribalistic outlook.
I have been to different parts of Nigeria, and also to
several countries around the world, and everywhere I
have noticed that human beings are essentially the
same, with both kind aspects and at the same time
with a predisposition to maltreating other races and
tribes of men. On a lighter side now, an Italian-
American had once asked me in Philadelphia if there
were actual houses in Nigeria. I suppose she thought
we were living on some trees or inside some caves.
Such stereotypical view as this, is usually not an
evidence of a defect in the victim of such view, but on
the other hand it is nothing short of a demonstration
her shocking and shameful ignorance. And yes, that
was just two years ago, not two centuries ago.
I have heard Yorubas who have never been to
Northern Nigeria tell me things about the Hausas. The
Igbos do the same, the same thing the Hausas. The sad
thing is that such stereotypical and entirely ignorant
branding of other tribes is not aways caused by
illiteracy. When I was a kid I had been made to believe
that education should liberate a people, in our case it
seems to drive us further down the path of bondage.
Let's for a minute consider how it has affected every
splinter of our national experience. Do you need me to
write about the politics of blood and greed, where each
tribe sees the privilege to serve the nation as no more
than a golden opportunity to divert the nation's
bleeding wealth to his own part of the country? And as
a result of the competitive scramble for loot, no one
cares that the nation remains stagnant, once the
misguided politician is from your tribe. How many
politicians do we have that can claim exemption to
this? It has become a status behaviour for them to
establish a university, a hospital , or any other such
structures in their own states and villages once elected.
And we all look away from the fact that such
institutions could have better served Nigerians in some
other parts of the country.
What of sport? Some weeks ago the whole world
gathered in London to watch the open shame of
Nigeria, the self-acclaimed giant of African (too sad
being merely numerous isn't enough to merit such
description). I am sure not many Nigerians were
disappointed or shocked by the outcome, that we didn't
leave London with a tiny medal. Had they included
copper, or wood in the awarded medals I am not so
sure we would have come home with enough wood to
light our frozen national heart. One would then ask,
how come such a country with so many people could
not lift a single medal? Well, we are from a country
where the last time we heard of merit spoken of was in
the fairy tales told by our parents, in turn told them by
their own parents. Instead, in the name of being
faithful to some spurious Federal character, we ended
up enlisting athletes who were below average. Should
it really matter which tribe the athletes come from as
long as they are the best the country could find? If for
instance we have 15 slots to fill on a football team, and
out of all the interviewd candidates 12 Igbos (or
Hausas or Yorubas) possess performance superior to
every other person, one should think it makes more
sense to choose those ones rather than to push in
members of the other tribes who have no competing
chance, not even within our own country.
The educational sector and the principle, for instance,
of catchment area scores. I wish I could laugh at this
policy's silliness, but that it's a very sad phenomenon.
That smarter candidates are turned away from an
institution just because they are from different states:
Then we go ahead and lower the pass mark for the
indigenes of our own states. The sad thing is, that poor
boy from another state who probably gave his best to
writing the exam, is turned away empty-handed. And if
such individual has no such institution in his own
state, he though being a Nigerian becomes an
education-destitute in his own country. But then you'd
ask, shouldn't the state be able to actively enhance the
education of its indigenes? By all means, it must. But
then should it be by lowering the standard and thus
prematuredly aborting the surviving notion of merit?
Certainly not. Lowering the pass mark (catchment
score it is called) for the state is analogous to Britain
deciding its own sprinters would only need to run half
track to qualify for a medal. But instead of adopting the
Nigerian model, it spent billions of pounds in training
its citizens so they had more chance of qualifying
without having to selectively beat down the pass mark
for the Britons. Any serious state interested in
enhancing its indigenes education should be read invest
in infrastructure acquisition and students' training
especially at the the primary and secondary school
levels. If a state invests in hiring exceptional teachers
and in equipping the education at these indicated
levels, it can then be expected that its indigines will
have no problem meeting a unified entry qualification
into the higher institutions. In addition, the state can
also (and should) give worthy scholarships to
exceptional and hardworking indigenous students,
which should directly stimulate and motivate their
interest in knowledge education. To round this
paragraph off, I must say University of llorin is about
the worst in terms of ambushing university education
(a Federal university at that) for its own indigenes.
Perhaps there are other universities like this within the
country, and one only needs to interview more students
to find this out. |
Re: Tribalism And The Nigerian Model Of Racism by ladon1: 7:51pm On Jun 10, 2016 |
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Re: Tribalism And The Nigerian Model Of Racism by ladon1: 7:53pm On Jun 10, 2016 |
Racism, tribalism, nepotism and all the other forms of
negative human relational isms are a disease inhabiting
the dirty crevices of the human soul. They are often
symptomised by absurd stereotypes, fuelled by
ignorance and thriving in the mind of the mentally,
morally and spiritually stunted regardless of whether
such predisposition is found in an illiterate person or
an Emeritus professor. As Nigerians we need not look
too far afield for a demonstration of its unfortunate
effects, it's right here in our homes, in religious and
educational institutions, and in governance. And until
we shed this contemptible cloak of immaturity, we are
going no where as a country.
Jide Olubiyi , Research Center Julich, Germany . |
Re: Tribalism And The Nigerian Model Of Racism by Horus(m): 11:05pm On Jun 10, 2016 |
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGFUCCCC9kQ [size=14pt]Nigerians Frown At Incessant Trend Of Tribalism[/size] Nigerians have been enjoined to shun tribalism in national affairs for the development of the country. |
Re: Tribalism And The Nigerian Model Of Racism by oduastates: 7:25am On Jun 11, 2016 |
You are fighting against human nature.What you count as tribalism can also be regarded as an expression of nationalism. Perhaps, Nigeria is 10 countries in 1. perhaps the landlords have had bad experiences with foreigners. Like their immigration enforcement officers breaking down the door to arrest undocumented workers.like 419 and drugs. |
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