The Problem with Nigeria (2)

Look around and you might notice the disgraceful sight of various ethnic social cultural groups parading themselves as serving the interest of their tribes and people. They come outside in the open to advocate for unity, but hide under the cover of their tribes and religion to secretly preach ethnic jargons at their meetings. This is Part of the problem with my dear country Nigeria, and part of why we still fight over indigene ship and breed the reprehensible settler syndrome.  Try dating or marry a woman from anywhere in Nigeria, the first question that is bound to confront you is where are you from? Wish tribe are you? And what religion do you belong?  Many young men and women have been denied their rightful privilege to choose and wed their heartthrobs based on these feeble excuses of tribe and religion differences. Yet, we all go to the same markets to sell and buy, without discriminating against the tribe or religion of the person spending the cash.

How many of my country men and women have been slaughtered and their property destroyed in the name of tribe, religion and settler syndrome? How many have lost their jobs and livelihood just because they don’t belong to a certain tribe or religion? Something they never made themselves. Or is there anyone alive who can claim to have created him or herself and decide what tribe or race they want?  I tell you, most of our problems in this big rich country are man-made Wahala, planned and created by our fellow countrymen and women for selfish interests. Part of the reason why we are still swimming confusingly against the tides of development and daily confronted with the current Katakata of insecurity, kidnapping, terrorism ,armed robbery, ritual murders, and frequent ethnic-religious crises across the country.

The monster call corruption now resides permanently in most of our ministries and government agencies. It has long stolen patriotism and the fear of God from the conscience of some of our public servants who now daily find joy in looting and milking the nation dry; building gigantic vanity structures, cruising proudly in artificial toys, chasing after licentious women and breeding spoilt kids. The blight of corruption has eaten into the vision of some of our greedy politicians so much that most of them are too blind to see the poverty in their communities and the impoverished conditions of their towns and villages, including the frail figures of their hungry looking towns men and women; the same purported people whose interest they were expect to represent.  

A prudent glance at Nigeria would reveal a glaring fact that we don’t appreciate what we have and who we are. Across the country are able and creative manpower, but the quest for importing other peoples creativity from abroad and zealously marketing and selling them; thus encouraging capital flight and enriching these other people and their nations has always been part of the problem.  What really happened to that Nigeria of old, where we had prolific writers like Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Abubakar Imam, Ola Rotimi, Cyprian Ekwensi and Flora Nwanpa? These great pen-pushers helped revolutionized the Nigerian literature and brought us respect and honors in the eyes of the world. Today, despite the large concentration of intellectual citizens across the globe, our literature presently is nothing to write home about.

What happened to that promising country that had some of the best schools in sub-Sahara Africa, some of the best brains in almost all facets of human endeavors, including some hitherto world class industries? The Nigeria nation today depends largely on imported products and brains. We derive pride in importing anything under the sun; ranging from used and discarded second hand fridges, second hand clothes, toxic radios, out model TVs, virus infested computers, outdated used books, and fake drugs, expired beverages, frozen chickens and packaged food.  Our big nation now goes as far as importing matches, toothpicks and other simple cheap things that could be manufactured here by the abundant manpower and creative brains wasting away in all corner of the country.

What sensible nation would keep importing fuel to its citizenry, despite having one of the best crude oil in the world? How can we expect to have a made in Nigerian car when we have never appreciated the ingenious creativity of our mechanics that despite their local breeding could always dismantle any car in the world, fabricate and fix any spoilt parts and reassemble it back on the road. How do we expect to win medals in major sporting activities in the world, when we have long dumped the idea of grooming from the grass root? Instead what we have today is a politicized sporting establishment. Strangely, those ruling us expect to see development in the country when in actual sense they have gone against the natural laws of nature, which glaringly shows that everything that grows under the sun start from the root. Unlike before when the past nationalist leaders had a sensible vision of developing the local authorities that are the roots of the nations to the top, our present crops of prejudiced divided leaders have relegated the 774 local government areas to a mere space of milking money to feed and sustain their expensive and unworkable system of government and at the same time maintain their insatiable flamboyant lifestyles. After all, leadership in Nigeria today is all about sentiment and not quality.

Believe it, the problems confronting this diversified nation are too enormous to mention, but thankfully, they are artificial quandaries that the citizens can tackle and wrestle down if they have the will and courage. The Nigeria nation can really stand tall among other nations in the world if the Nigerian in Diaspora can sincerely sacrifice their intellect, wealth and collections to the development of their nation, without subscribing to the ethnic- religious division tearing the country apart, just like other diasporas are doing in other countries across the globe. An example is India, where the Diasporas of this populous nation have been able to inculcate their nation into becoming one of the biggest Information Communication Technology giants in the world. Or what stop those running the affairs of this overshadowed great nation from taking an example of how the Chinese, though the most populous nation in the world, have been able to utilized their enormous size into becoming one of the greatest technological advanced nations in the world and catapulted their country into a rich economy.

This country, I tell you, is one of the luckiest on earth, blessed with various tribes, cultures and diversified people. Look prudently around you and you are bound to notice this in its beautiful topography, its vast rich land, and the various countless life sustaining agricultural produce from its captivating weather. Which other country on earth then would I want to swap for this naturally gifted country?  I think none, believe me – I love this country no be small. 

The Problem with Nigeria (1)

  

To set the record straight, I am very proud to be a Nigerian any day, anytime and anywhere. in fact, I won’t trade this big rich country for any other on earth. I love my country no be small. But, I have, just like many other citizens of this great giant of Africa long been aware that there are some problems confronting this beloved nation.

To be honest, most of these hitches are ordinary man-made lacuna created by my fellow country men and women over the years since our freedom from our colonial masters who unwillingly imposed themselves and their ways of life on us. How else should we describe a country as big and rich like ours, with abundant human and capital resources, but still lag behind in this 21^st century, despite our abundance.

Part of our problems over the decades has always been as a result of greed, self centeredness, myopic reasoning, ethnic sentiment and religion bigotry. I tell you this, go anywhere in Nigeria today, the story is the same everywhere; from the east, south, north, and down to the west. It is all about what tribe you are or what religion you belong. This disgraceful out of date reasoning has eaten so deep into the fabric of our social structure with these prejudices taking over a large chunk in our government ministries and agencies. These government establishments have over the years served as a breeding ground for ethnic and religion segregation, instead of the united settings that they were supposed to be. Just take a prudent study of any of our ministries and you will grab what I mean.

It is no more a hidden fact that the so-called federal character system has contributed to the lapses and division we are witnessing today, with the system encouraging more tribal sentiment everyday in our various places of work. In fact, one would always notice the tribal and religion partition anytime, even in our communities, schools and markets. It is visible in our transport system with some ethnic group having the monopoly of ferrying us across our dilapidated roads. It is equally conspicuous in other professional fields. It is a fact that we have some concentrated numbers of certain tribe as lawyers, doctors, engineers, including our armed forces.

The problem with Nigeria include the over dependence on foreign ideas and our worship of anything from abroad. We always have this shameful habit of rejecting what we have for others from outside. We love globetrotting across the world, marveling at the human and capital development of these other nations and always proud to boast about them. So many Nigerians today would hurriedly forsake this country and change their nationality to become American, British or Canadian citizens if given the opportunity. I tell you, many of my country men and women would abandon their villages, culture and tradition if requested to do so just to travel abroad. Our present generations are so carried away with the materialist life in these purported developed nations that many of them can’t even speak their mother’s tongue. Again, just take your time to study our movies, newspapers, weddings and music and you might understand what I am blabbing about.  

Your name and your surname has become the ticket to get you a job, admission into some of our ramshackle schools and promotion in your place of work. God help you, if you work in an establishment and the person heading that place or those with the authority over your salary, wages or promotion don’t subscribe to your faith and name. You either stay stuck at a position for long because of nepotism or find your way out.  Promotion and employment is no longer based on merit or qualification, it is now more centered on ethnicity, religion or who you know at the top. Again, God safe you if your name is Audu, and the majority of those in your place of work are the Ukechukwus, Nnamdi, Ngozi or Chinyere. Likewise, pray God to help you if your name is Emeka, and the dominating tribe in your office has name tag like Abubakar, Bello, Aisha or Halima. The same thing if your name is Segun or Bimbo and those holding sway in your place of livelihood are from these two major ethic group, and equally the same story if Mr. Adewale happens to be the oga at the top in these ministries or agencies, then God help those whose name or surname has anything to do with Uche, Onyeka, Sani or Jamila.

Surprisingly, this syndrome has also found its way into our places of worship. Go to some churches and mosques in some part of Nigeria and what you see and hear is all about what part of the country is the pastor, reverend, Imam or sheik from? Or who are the majority tribes in these places. We have seen and witnessed how some pastors and Imams have turned their churches and mosques into political campaign grounds and without the fear of God preach discords among their followers.  We’ve seen and heard them shamelessly canvass votes and positions for candidates of their faiths, members of their churches or mosques or any politician with mouth-watering tithe or Zaka to dole out during elections or whenever there are any vacant juicy federal positions. 

The problem with Nigeria is part of our famous Nigerian syndrome. Our leaders give us roads, schools, hospitals, and even drinking water based on regional sentiment and other prejudiced calculations. We appoint people into high professional positions based on ethnic bullshit and an outdated federal character disorder, and we expect to get good results. Wrong pegs are fixed into wrong holes everyday and the retrogression continues all across our economy, political and social structures. Funnily, even electricity distribution in the country is also tented with politics. Go to any part of the country and you will hear tales of the ethnic, religion and political manipulation involved in the distribution of ordinary transformer to a deserving community. The people in these areas either tax themselves huge amount of money for NEPA officials or play servant to a serving politician to obtain one, and they are mostly refurbished and outdated ones. 

Sons of the soil: the history of the Gbagyi people of Abuja

The history of Abuja was originally the south western part of the ancient Habe (Hausa) Kingdom of Zazzau (Zaria). It was populated for centuries by several semi-independent tribes. The largest of these tribes was the Gbagyi. Other areas where they are predominantly found are in Niger and Kaduna states, and also in Nasarawa, Kogi and Kwara states in central Nigeria.

The Gbagyi’s are the most populated ethnic group in the FCT and their major occupation is farming, pottery and hunting. They are the original settlers of Abuja the federal capital city of Nigeria, and the Gbagyi language is the most widespread. They are known to be noble, peace loving accommodating and warm. Their hospitable and cordial nature earned them the phrase ‘ Muyi shi Gwari-Gwari’ ( Which means let’s do it like the Gbagys). Interestingly the word Gwari, which the Gbagyi are famously called, is the name of a particular yam in Gbagyi.

The Gbagys are culturally soaked people, who despite the over-whelming force of civilization still cling to the basic rudiments of their culture. A few have remained aloof to the attractions of modernity, especially the older Gbagyians, who still stand strong against the devastating effects of civilization. For instance, in the past the Gbagyi women were distinguished with the way they carried any load on their shoulder, either heavy or light; because they   are of the believe that the head should be accorded a royal status as the King of the entire body, saddled with the task of thinking for the body, so therefore it should not be burdened with manual or pedestrian task, such as ferrying goods from place to place. But this is not so today, as the venom of civilization has since overtaken and eclipsed it, and the traditional sight has become a rarity except for the older women who still hold on true to this belief and practice.

 Another fabric of their culture that has suffered some degree of extinction is the process of marriage. In time past, a suitor seeking the hand of a girl in marriage would have to devote seven 7years of his engagement or notice of interest on the bride to be to the father’s farm and also supply grains to the bride’s house in order to get her robust and ripe for the D-day. Presently the suitor goes ahead to pay pride price without serving notice to the father.

The Gbagyi initial habitat was the mountain top and had eight kings crowned to rule over them, and when westernization brought in the rain track, they decided and agreed among themselves to come down, except for their forefathers who opined that it was safer to stay on the mountain than the plains, as this would make it easier to haul stones at advancing enemies. The mountains/rocks were a refuge as well as a mystical source of strength.

Islam and Christianity enjoy almost equal following. Islam first came to the Gbagyis in the 19^th century during the Sokoto Jihad of 1804 by Usman Danfodio, while Christianity came in the 20^th century through the southerners. Islam was able to gain more converts than Christianity, the reason for this was that the practices encouraged by the Gbagyi religion conformed with Islam, such as polygamy, devotion, using of rings or amulets. These similarities made it easy for the Gbagyi’s to receive Islam whole heartedly. But regardless of the twin influences of Islam and Christianity the Gbagyi people still practice their Knunu, which is their primal religion, as they claim that Knunu safeguard them and their families from certain evil forces and uncertainty. Knunu tradition for the Gbagys is a special tree in the Kurmi (Forest), where offering of fowl and beers are made.

The favourite food of the Gbagys is known as Wyizhe, made from guinea corn to form Zhepwo a special drink  use to drink with Knadolo  a spicy soup made with locus beans, and their famous dress is call Ajesida, made from local cotton and traditional woven and dyed by their skillful dressmakers. Some of their popular festivals is the Agbamaya festival and the Zhibaje.  The Agbamaya festival is a celebration usually perform to welcome the rain during the raining season, while Zhibaje is a traditional Christmas celebration.

Presently the transformation of FCT as the capital of Nigeria has almost swallowed these peace loving tribe. They were persuaded to give out their farmland and settlement for the actualization of the national vision of a modern cosmopolitan city. But the Gbagys years after, are still reeling under the weight of what they have come to see and interpreted as betrayal on the part of the federal government, who they feel have short-charged them and deprived them of their land. And land is one issue an average Gbagyi man does not play with, as majority of them told KNOW Abuja that the worst thing that could happen to any Gbagyi person is to deprive him of his land, because as farmers they see land as the most important aspect of their life. They are mostly of the opinion that the federal government land swap policy has no direct significant to that lives, instead they see the policy as a way of taking over their ancestry lands. The question they want answer is what happens to a family of five since the government plan is to allocate a three bedroom to those who might be affected by the land swap policy. They also questioned why the land policy should only be concentrated in the FCT, why not in Bauchi , Katsina, Kaduna, Nasarawa, Niger and other states  across the country? They counsel the government to be sincere in its developmental programme for the ingenious people in the FCT instead of antagonizing them all the time with unfavorable land policy.

Though today, the Gbagys especially the new generation have embraced western education and now have different professionals in various fields, as medical doctors, lawyers, surveyors, architects, soldiers, policemen and women, including top politicians like senators, house members and journalists. In fact, with the exception of Abaji area council in the FCT, five out of the six area council chairmen are Gbagys.  

Some phrases and words in Gbagyi:

1.       How are you?        -   Agbowolona

2.       Let’s go  -    Beyalo

3.       We are farmers -  Yizhi’afayinu

4.        Gwari-  Yam

5.       I am going to school – Milo ynabanu

6.       Grass – Gbebe

7.       Tree -  Shuwa

8.       Man-  Zanugbayi

9.       Woman – Eyikoza

10.   Sleep – Genwa

11.   Wake up-  Kwagyewi

12.   Mountain – Epe

The insensitivity of Abuja land swap and demolitions

You only have power over people so long as you don't take everything away from them. But when you've robbed a man of everything, he's no longer in your power - he's free again.- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

                

Sometimes it seems those selected or elected to rule us are more of aliens than human beings like most of us. This is so, because of their inhuman and unsympathetic attitudes to their fellow countrymen and women as they carry out their myopic policies, especially in the federal capital territory Abuja, where Nigerians are daily tormented, brutalized and dehumanized in the name of land swap and demolition.

This same capital that was supposed to be  home to all Nigerians have since been hijacked by a greedy few, not even the indigenous inhabitants of this city have been spared from this insensitivity and madness, all purported to bring out a man-made master plan –the Abuja master plan. What about the God’s made master plan that created and made these people who they are and planted them where they are today?  I believe it would beat the imagination of every sane mind on the way and manner at which the FCT administration arbitrary used uniformed men and some of its officials to harassed and bulldozed law abiding citizens, whose only offence was to have laboriously erected a house in their country to shelter their frustrated heads from poor government policies over the decades.

I believe it is only in an insane society that those in power would wake up every day with no other better things to do than to torment their fellow men and women with demolition of their property. It is actually a sign of administrative failure if the policy of government dwells so much on kicking out people from their ancestral land without recourse to their historical lost and cultural heritage. I wonder how most of these insensitive tormentors would have react if a government policy should ask them to leave their ancestral villages? I am sure the FCT minister would not close his eyes and allow a Bauchi state government policy to bulldoze him out of his ancestral land; neither would those working on his order take it lightly with any government policies that might affect their own homes.

It is always funny when men on earth, who have slightly been opportune to have vanity power, shield their eyes from reality that we all came into this transit world naked and naked we shall all return, leaving all the land and gigantic mansions behind. I tell you, not even an atom of sand shall accompany any one of us to the grave; Then why all the fuss over land and housing in Abuja?  Why built multi million naira worth of  estates for only  rats, spiders and other rodents to live in, why the little space in our slum-like satellite towns  on which the vast majority of ordinary Nigerians built their little homes are daily bulldozed and the people subjected to harassment and antagonism, without respecting their dignity?  Why steal this land from the people in the name of land swap and demolition and at the end the same land are later allocated to the rich and the powerful to continue building their expensive estates for rodents and rats? Are some people more favored and better than the rest? Are these elites more human than the rest of us, with different biological attributes of one head, two eyes and one soul? Or maybe we now have an Animal Farm setting in the federal capital city, with some animals more equal than others. Are ordinary Nigerians expected to pack their baggage and source for land in the sky to build their homes?

So many questions begging for answer on this insensitivity going on in our country. Is Abuja no longer that united city conceived by some of our past patriotic leaders? The fact that our present crops of politicians and enforced leaders are mere beneficiaries of this legacy  should be a reminder to them that one day they shall relinquish their present rigid positions to others, whither they like it or not. Soldier come, soldier go and the barrack remains.  The truth is, no man or woman in whatever position torment others, should expect respite from the almighty God. Even the ordinary curses of the masses whose homes and houses have been demolished are enough to evoke the wreath of the creator on those who have unjustifiably subjected them to pains and sorrows.  They should expect the stolen sleep of those little children who have been forced to squat around with their parents amidst fear and hunger to bring about a terrible repercussion on them, sooner or later.

No doubt many Nigerians, especially the masses could be said to be more at home in Abuja during the military era, unlike the present democracy dispensation, where ordinary civilians like them in position of power have subjected them to misery, intimidation and demolitions. What an irony, that the civilian rule that was supposed to give them freedom and respite in their fatherland is now the monster daily tormenting them. What a pity that those on whose hands held the ladders that lifted these men and women in power into their present positions are the same people whose hands are now daily bunt with fire and constantly robbed of their sweats.

Well, as long as the present administration keep tormenting the people with demolition and other negative government policies, then the day shall come when these men who are now happily upstairs, and feel they are safe where they are, shall seek their ways downstairs, and then, they shall realize that those hands that once held those ladders for them firmly are no longer there, for they are free and no longer in their selfish power.