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These Ripples Will Tear The Republic By Abdulrahman Akintoye - Politics - Nairaland

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These Ripples Will Tear The Republic By Abdulrahman Akintoye by russellino: 8:37am On Aug 24, 2013
These ripples will tear the republic! By AbdulRahman Akintoye

A response to Olakunle Abimbola’s article in THE NATION on Tuesday, the 20th of August 2013 titled: ‘Beware, Eastern Brother!’
I have decided to write this rejoinder for two reasons. The first is that Olakunle Abimbola’s piece, though sowing the same poisonous seeds, is far more a reasonable presentation, compared to the argument or do I say rants of Femi Fani-Kayode. And so, I feel the need to respond to a sane, reasonable, humane, yet flawed essay. The second reason for this intervention is my alarming observation that the foolish rhetoric of the like of Orji uzor Kalu and Fani-kayode is working. It is successfully sowing seeds of discord, and where the seeds are already present; it is serving as a fertilizer on steroids. At the newspaper stand where I bought the THE NATION newspaper in which I found Olakunle’s article, what began as a civil argument between two presumably educated men almost turned into a brawl. The issue was whether the Igbo man was evil, or not.
Olakunle argues that the law really does not have a business in the matter. Hear him:
‘…but after all the excitement, something is clear: Nigeria is no settler community, like the United States or Australia. It is an indigenous corps of cultural entities which had existed long before colonialism and Fredrick Lugard’s yoking of 1914. So those who do plastic legal analysis, without factoring in the objective and peculiar condition on ground miss the point, it is nothing but legal grandstanding…’

Frankly, I think it is Olakunle who missed the point. He is of course making reference to the several commentators who have pointed out the fact that the constitution of the Federal republic of Nigeria which is the supreme law of the land guarantees the freedom of movement of citizens of Nigeria within Nigeria and who flowing from that premise have argued that the deportation of citizens of Nigeria by the Lagos State government is unconstitutional.
You see, the constitutional drafters were well aware of the dynamics of the Nigerian state, but they understood the need to foster cohesion, the need for national unification in contrast to Awolowo’s Yoruba dominance philosophy or Zik’s idea of Igbo supremacy. Awolowo and Nnamdi Azikiwe were great thinkers in their own rights, but their time has come and it has long gone. We must refrain from dissipating energy on ethnic conflicts; we must keep tribalism at bay, if we value our survival.

And that brings me to the issue of the allegation of Igbo domination that Olakunle makes against the Igbo. He writes:
‘…even in Lagos, there are allegations of Igbo crushing non-Igbo out of legitimate trade. The Nation columnist, Sanya Oni told a sad tale of how he was crushed out of business when he once traded in spare parts at Ladipo market, Mushin, Lagos. Utuk motors and Inyang Ette transport companies in eastern routes, also have sad tales alleging Igbo sharp trade practices…’

The kind of generalization that Olakunle invokes in the above passage is as unhealthy as it is unnecessary. For every Sanya Oni complaining about some Igbo people, there are Igbo’s too, unsatisfied with the aggressive conduct of some of their Yoruba neighbors. Every tribe has bad eggs. The danger of Olakunle’s line of reasoning is that it encourages non- Igbo people to distrust the Igbo and that is surely a recipe for disaster. We should deal with people on the merits of their character and behavior, not with pre-conceived notions of how all of their kind wants to dominate us.
In a moment of what must have been divine inspiration, the famous writer, Mark Twain, commented:
‘All generalizations are wrong, including this one!’

AbdulRahman Akintoye is a concerned Nigerian who comments every now and then on important national issues. You may find his other articles at dbestsmiles0.
He is @dbestsmiles on twitter
Re: These Ripples Will Tear The Republic By Abdulrahman Akintoye by bloggernaija: 9:13am On Aug 24, 2013
This writer is on a long thing.
Abimbola was right.
The strangeness of this paper aka constitution is revealed by the fact that there is truly only one truly functional democracy in Africa ;Botswana .
the proof reside in the Igbos themselves.they do not even believe in that one nigeria but pull it out to make one baseless argument after the other.
The yorubas are the only ones in the country living the idea of one nigeria .
Something close to granting as much opportunities / right as indigens to visitors.
for example,
There are millions of non yorubas employed in yoruba owned coys , firm and civil service.
The urhobos and edo do the same.
BUT THE IBOS ARE NOTORIUS FOR NOT EMPLOYING OTHERS.
THE HAUSAMANAND WOULD RATHER EMPLOY A LEBANESE IF HE CAN AFFORD TO DO SO.
Re: These Ripples Will Tear The Republic By Abdulrahman Akintoye by russellino: 9:41am On Aug 24, 2013
bloggernaija:

the proof reside in the Igbos themselves.they do not even believe in that one nigeria but pull it out to make one baseless argument after the other.
The yorubas are the only ones in the country living the idea of one nigeria .
Something close to granting as much opportunities / right as indigens to visitors.
for example,
There are millions of non yorubas employed in yoruba owned coys , firm and civil service.
The urhobos and edo do the same.
BUT THE IBOS ARE NOTORIUS FOR NOT EMPLOYING OTHERS.
THE HAUSAMANAND WOULD RATHER EMPLOY A LEBANESE IF HE CAN AFFORD TO DO SO.

How on earth can you say that yorubas grant non-indigenes the rights of indigenes because igbos work in companies owned by yorubas. Wetin concern employing somebody who is fit to do a job with ethnicity for goodness sake. What kind of ppl is this country producing. Do you know how many yorubas work in coscharis? Do you know how many yoruba computer gurus were employed in Nnewi in the mid 1990s by the likes of ibeto and co to help computerise their businesses. How did good sense degenerate to this level of banal ethnic chest thumping ?
Re: These Ripples Will Tear The Republic By Abdulrahman Akintoye by Nobody: 9:53am On Aug 24, 2013
So the thing is gradually spilling onto the streets!
Re: These Ripples Will Tear The Republic By Abdulrahman Akintoye by T8ksy(m): 11:36am On Aug 24, 2013
cogitoErgo: So the thing is gradually spilling onto the streets!


GOOD! Let the battle for Lagos, commence.

In the late 40's, the ibos were up in arms ready to battle yorubas, for Lagos. It was during this time that Zik coined the term "No man's Land", for Lagos.He even shamelessly cited the groundnut pyramid in the north as contributing its own quota into developing Lagos whilst he relegated Yoruba's claim to the city as a consequence of their close proximity to the area.

Zik had always been slimy,anyway.

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