The challenge of Nigerian Unity

The events of the last few days have opened my eyes to the reality that Nigeria’s main developmental challenge is founded on the lack of unity compounded by poor leadership. It is acknowledged that Nigeria is a nation of diversity, diverse people, cultures, religions, and tongues. There is even climatic diversity, from the rain forests of the South to the Savannah of the Middle Belt, to the aridity and desertification of parts of the North. This discourse reviews the challenges of disunity and how Nigeria can turn its diversity into the building blocks of a great nation.

Experts have articulated unity in terms of the “state of being one; oneness, a whole or totality as combining all its parts into one; the state or fact of being united or combined into one, as of the parts of a whole; unification”. It is also about “oneness of mind, feeling, etc., as among a number of persons; concord, harmony, or agreement”. From the foregoing, a united nation does not mean the absence of diversity or absence of different world views, opinions, and way of life. A united nation is one that can manage these diversities so that the different competencies and endowments of the different parts are utilised and harnessed for a higher national goal which benefits everyone and all the parts of the whole. This is the challenge of leadership, to direct and articulate the vision and mission and how the sub-visions of the different parts contribute to the larger goal. Leadership directs different components of the whole to see the progress of a component as the progress of all because it manages the interlocking interests and challenges to produce a win-win situation for all.

The recent outburst by the Attorney-General and Chief Law Officer of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, sets the context of this discourse. The Attorney General of the Federation by law should act in the public interest, in the interest of the entire federation. He is not expected to pit one part of the country against another, and should lead the resolution of complex national challenges employing law as an instrument of social engineering. Law is expected to be deployed to protect the interest of the herders and ensure that cattle rearing produces the requisite milk, meat, hides and skin, employment and moves the value chain from its current lowest ebb towards the derivation of maximum value. Law as an instrument of development will also protect the interest of landowners and farmers from trespass to avoid conflicts leading to loss of lives and property as we presently witness. A leader with unity and development as central objectives is like a father who seeing his children spurring for a fight separates and rebukes them. He will not arm one child to fight the other or incite them to fight themselves.

The challenge in this context is that because of poor leadership, Nigerians of different backgrounds see themselves as different and have set different goals and objectives due to the absence of an overarching national goal and vision. In this example, the herders after fattening their cows will eventually need a market to sell them while they will need to buy tubers, cereals, and crops for food as well. So, the two can co-exist without their rights being placed in the context of either the herders or the farmers. This is where unity of purpose through the leadership comes to play.

In unity, the acts and omissions of groups and individuals take into consideration the interests of other groups and individuals. Where this is not the case, leadership moves in to secure the balance through law and policy. But this must be a leadership that sees the entire nation as its constituency. The leader neither sees himself as a northerner, southerner, easterner, or westerner but as a Nigerian acting for the common will. There is a national dream, a nation vision, a flag, and anthem everyone can be proud of. But can anyone in all honesty define the Nigerian dream? There is none to my knowledge.

In a united country, there is a competition and race to the top rather than the current Nigerian race to the bottom where we bring out the tenth eleven into leadership. The race to the top is informed by the fact that everyone understands that the achievements of the few rubs off on the security and welfare of all. The excuse for wrongdoing and poor policies should not always be what a previous government did because governments will be designed to represent all. In a united country, the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), could not be heard voicing the fact that it would be difficult for him to treat all sections of the country equally and fairly because they did not vote for him. Pray, what is the essence of opposition in a democracy if the President wants everyone to vote for his party? In a united country, a President and ruling party will not close their eyes and watch foreign herders maim and kill citizens and yet pay lip service to stopping the killers. The implication is that leadership considers these foreigners more related to their part of the country and would have preferred to be in the same country with them than the real citizens who hold the Nigerian passport! The number of persons killed by these foreign herders, from Benue State to all parts of Nigeria and the lack of appropriate security response show the very challenge of unity.

The challenge of unity is not new to Nigeria. We have fought a bitter civil war over the challenge. But since then, no administration has strained the bonds that hold the nation together like the present one. The federal administration engages in hate action and yet complains of hate speech. Hate action is exemplified in the exclusion of some parts of the country from appointments and benefitting from various government activities and the overall resources of the country. It is this hate action that is giving rise to the surge in ethnic nationalism. The fault lines were already there before Buhari came on board, but he has widened the cracks in a devil-may-care attitude to policy and its implementation.

But there is still an opportunity for the Buhari regime to rise to the occasion and sooth the frayed nerves, reunite the nation and stir nationalism in a majority of Nigerians. He can rejig his appointments by removing deadwoods and ethnic champions, reach out to various segments of Nigeria, fight insecurity to a standstill without favour to any groups of criminals.  This will lay the foundation for the economy to be revived and jobs created. This will start from agriculture and its value chains. Projects should be evenly distributed across the federation. In appointing competent persons from all parts of the country, to oversee various parts of the economy, a strong message will be sent to the international investing community that Nigeria is back and ready for business. All these will engender unity in the country.