Comments on: In Pursuit of a Pan-Nigerian Identity

By: LK Ola

LK Ola — Mon, 26 Aug 2024 14:30:23 +0000

It seems that many people in the comments section are missing the main point of the article. The central idea is that the ethnic identities we (Nigerians) now strongly cling to are relatively recent constructs. For example, just a couple of centuries ago, the Egba people identified separately from the Yariba/Yoruba/Aku people. Similarly, the Ekiti people were distinct from the Oyo or Akoko people, and there was no concept of northern Nigeria. The Aro and Onitsha people didn't want to be identified as Igbo.

Yet, over the past 60 to 70 years, we’ve managed to rise above these divisions and now identify with broader ethnic groups like Yoruba, Igbo, and Hausa/North. The key question is: how do we replicate this sense of unity on a national level? How do we encourage people to feel more Nigerian, rather than just identifying as Igbo, Yoruba, or any other ethnic group?

The unity that comes from a strong sense of national patriotism could drive significant transformation in our national economic and political discourse. I believe that our lack of unity is our biggest downfall, even more so than the actions of our corrupt political leaders. Our division is the root cause of our failures. It is this division that allows imperialists and political leaders to exploit and impoverish us for their greedy, selfish interests.

I was hoping for a more thoughtful debate in the comments section, but instead, it’s filled with insults and off-topic vitriol. People are just angry.

By: Mystic mallam

Mystic mallam — Sat, 24 Aug 2024 09:06:22 +0000

In reply to Dr. Dee. deceitful because, better than you and I, Mr. Kolawole knows the truth but says falsehood....

By: lanel

lanel — Tue, 20 Aug 2024 00:02:14 +0000

In reply to Middle of Everywhere. he was just trying destroy the reputation of an igbo man[iwuanyawu]

By: Never

Never — Mon, 19 Aug 2024 20:23:08 +0000

As usual, Kolawole and deflection in his write ups. This your article continues to show the hypocritical absence of deep philosophical thought to analyze issues, even as aThisday backpage columnist

By: obinnna77

obinnna77 — Mon, 19 Aug 2024 15:20:58 +0000

This guy..,
You are either being disingenuous, or are troublingly naive. It is no ‘retreat’, into anything; people are first of all what they are, before any other supranational identification. Somehow, getting on 10 years, you always manage to get under one’s skin.
There will be no pan Nigerian anything as long as there is rent free petrodollar. Remove that from the equation, and then our elite dissonance recedes, and we start to tell each other the truth.
All else is ‘ petro-patrotism ‘ as the crackpot William Norris brilliantly termed it, in one of his moments of penetration .

By: Zami

Zami — Mon, 19 Aug 2024 11:58:29 +0000

Happy to be back here where the readers are way smarter than the article writer

By: Zami

Zami — Mon, 19 Aug 2024 11:39:47 +0000

Let me help you to surmarise all this your rigmarole “there is no Nigeria “ Ende.

By: Dr. Dee

Dr. Dee — Mon, 19 Aug 2024 10:55:17 +0000

In reply to Mystic mallam. I do not know about Mr Kolawole being deceitful but the rest of your analysis is spot on.

By: Middle of Everywhere

Middle of Everywhere — Sun, 18 Aug 2024 21:22:12 +0000

Anger aside, nigerians knows what to do if they want anything like what you are saying. I will not go into it because you already know but will never advocate it. For the same reason nigeria is also never going to do it. So it is pointless. But one happy development arising from the Igbo marginalization is that young Igbos who were previously unaware, uninterested & lost about their identity & fate are awakening to the idea of, & pride about their Igbo identity. This for me, is better even than 1000 years of Igbo presidency!

By: Mystic mallam

Mystic mallam — Sun, 18 Aug 2024 08:42:12 +0000

This Kolawole is constantly and deliberately deceitful. First of all, he knows that every citizen was an ethnic of one tribe or another before s/he became Nigerian, the self-identification and loyalty of each individual must begin with his primordial origins. This is true of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales, as it is with every other plural country in the world. Trying to deny or dismiss this immutable fact is the basis of the failed military experimentation with Nigeria, all the rubbish and nonsense about non-negotiable and no-go-areas that have cost us nearly 5 decades of lost time in nation-building. Failure to accept and properly manage the fact of our differences and diversity, and work to build on them as given-foundation for a viable plural state or diverse-nation, remains the bane of Nigeria's stability, security, development and progress. Second, could Mr. kolawole point to any bigger ethnic champion than Bola Ahmed Tinubu who once quipped that he did not believe in One-Nigeria, championed the demand for a Sovereign National Conference in response to Abacha's usurpation of his kinsman Abiola's mandate, and even as President, has doubled down on Buhari's extreme ethnic parochialism. He finds nothing wrong with Tinubu virtually excluding entire micro-nations from Nigeria's governance structures just to favor his Yoruba kith and kin, and a few Northern elements that he reckons he'll need for electoral purposes. Thirdly, Mr. Kolawole, the sure recipe for pursuing a pan-Nigerian identity is not dismissal, or abolition, of tribe-and-tongue and all the cultural-value baggage that goes with it. On the contrary, to develop a truly pan-Nigerian identity, the most likely-to-succeed-recipe, is the same original one that our founding fathers negotiated and agreed to at Lancaster House, London. It's the same one that adventurous soldiers violated in 1966 and replaced with an unrecognizable and dysfunctional hybrid that serves a few and ignores the rest. It's the same one whose restoration non-negotiable hypocrites like yourself, have consistently trivialized and opposed. It remains the same – establishment of a FEDERAL REPUBLIC built on shared-consensual values, and not a UNITARY REPUBLIC imposed on diverse and mostly unwilling peoples who have cause to feel cheated, marginalized or excluded from the deciding the fate of their own lives.

By: the masked one

the masked one — Sun, 18 Aug 2024 03:39:57 +0000

Nevertheless, I am uncomfortable with ethnic champions seeking to lead Nigeria.??

I am also sickened by the attitude of fork-tongued individuals who fence-sit on national issues.

And I ask, which ethnic champion was greater than a president who said he was not going to treat those who gave him 97% votes and 5% votes equally, and he lived true to his words? In the same vein, the current president in taking care of those who gave him 37% votes has limited major appointments to Lagos/South West axis

It is only a grand hypocrite that will see nothing wrong with the divisive characters I cited but will term those who felt marginalized by their leadership styles agents of balkanization of Nigeria. Be truthful for once, Simon, son of Kolawale!

In any case, we know those who chorus "one indissoluble and indivisible entity" are only paying lip-service to the idea. If anything, the slant of the hunger protest in the North gave the lie to this pretense about One Nigeria.

Those retreating to their ethnic cocoons in the twilight days of their lives are only displaying wisdom and at the same time mocking their earlier lives' foolishness of waiting for Godot. If they'd had a second chance they'll live their lives differently.

By: the masked one

the masked one — Sun, 18 Aug 2024 03:39:57 +0000

Nevertheless, I am uncomfortable with ethnic champions seeking to lead Nigeria.??

I am also sickened by the attitude of fork-tongued individuals who fence-sit on national issues.

Those retreating to their ethnic cocoons in the twilight days of their life are only displaying wisdom and at the same time mocking their earlier life foolishness of waiting for Godot. If they'd had a second chance they'll live their life differently.

By: Aguiyi

Aguiyi — Sun, 18 Aug 2024 01:48:33 +0000

"That said, is there now a room for us to progress to a truly Nigerian identity? Or has the evolution ended?"
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
The evolution has probably ended

Kolawole did not analyze the role that religion played in forging the identity of Nigerians. Looking at the three (3) major tribes in Nigeria. 5% of Hausa identify as Christians. 35% of Yoruba identify as Christians. And a staggering 98% of Igbo identify as Christians.

No wonder you can listen to four (4) hours of original Igbo Gospel music. Nonstop. On YouTube. Without a single song being repeated.

So, Christianity significantly impacted Igbo identity. They have accepted the identities set forth by their Christian faith: " you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession" – 1 Peter 2:9 . Etc. But the fact that Igbo, or any other Nigerian tribe, identifies with their tribe does not make them any less Nigerian. Igbo identity is part of Nigerian identity

♬…Bia lee ihe oma Chineke Nna mere'm oo… Eze Jisos, mma-mma diri giiii… Bia lee ihe oma Chineke Nna mere'm oo…Eze Jisos, mma-mma diri giiii… Bianu le ee… ♬

By: Middle of Everywhere

Middle of Everywhere — Sun, 18 Aug 2024 01:15:44 +0000

CRIMINAL! LIAR! COWARD! EVIL!

Tinubu ran on the ticket of "South Western Agenda" (SWAGA!). In his Emilokan speech at Ibadan, he said he told Buhari when they were forming the APC alliance "not to joke with the matter of Yoruba"! He was using the (Emilokan) speech to remind Buhari of the "agreement" to return power to the southwest after his 8 years if the Yoruba support him (&the Fulani) in 2015. Yet it did not stop you from supporting & campaigning for him (Tinubu). In fact, in one of your column articles very close to the elections you expressed your happiness in the confidence that the north always keeps to agreements…

In 2019, Osinbajo had urged the Yoruba (at Buhari's prompting) to support Buhari as a condition for the Yoruba to take back power in 2023 because otherwise it will take a very long time before power rotates back to the Yoruba! The Yoruba elite, just as in 2015, keyed into this agenda! Not only did you not find it wrong or condemnable, you, viperous liar wrote an article campaigning for Yoruba presidency in October of 2020.

When Dave Umahi resigned from the PDP in 2020 to join APC, Yoruba SWAGA leaders, interpreting it as Buhari's plan to hand over to the Igbo, undertook a protest visit to Buhari to protest the plan, at the end of which meeting they refused to issued a communique! They were led by Rotimi Akeredolu. Yet when Akeredolu died, it did not reawaken in you thoughts about why politicians go from the national level to to be ethnic champions; in the same way it is only when it concerns stampeding themselves over Igbo women like trophy that they no longer discriminate against Igbo!

Get lost liar! Go & ask Soyinka why people descend from being international icons to become Ronu faces of bigotry!