You are too fat and can’t fit in, you are disabled and don’t belong here, you are of a low class please find your level, you are uneducated, can’t deal, you are a Muslim, can’t be seen with you, you are not from my church, can’t marry you, you are gay, you are from the pit of hell, you are an Osu, hence you are less human….

​​​​Discrimination of several prejudices now characterize and define who we are in Nigeria.

I have seen and listened to Nigerians living in the diaspora make case on racism, decrying how a Black man cannot walk the streets of the white man without attracting derogatory remarks or have them cringe their faces. We hear these and invoke danger upon the shelters of these white skinned lot, but back home, we are the pacesetters of discrimination.
The child whose father sacrifices own happiness to uphold the belief and tradition of this chaotic whole called society, would cry thus, ‘I am a sacrificial lamb slaughtered at the altar of my father's bloody custom.'
Societal bigots let myriad of cultural practices sway them from what’s right. With words like ‘Osu' (Igbo word for outcast) still making top aphorisms, and consequently followed by actions mostly in the Eastern part of the country, I frown seriously at my fellow blacks who cry foul at being marginalized and discriminated against.
“Racism is man's gravest threat to man- the maximum of hatred for the minimum of reason” I could swear Abraham Joshua Heschel had Nigerians in mind when he made this quote, because the manner at which we identify others by their shortcomings and predicaments and the idea of a father forbidding his daughter from marrying a man whose origin is traced to the ‘Osu caste system' are simply laughable and disgusting and make us all guilty of racism.
What is ‘Osu’? Lifted from Wikipedia, this caste system dates to the Nri Kingdom. It is believed that the Nris possessed a hereditary power and thus do go about cleansing various kingdoms of abomination; any community that refuses to be cleansed are called osus. Another view on the history of the Osu caste system centres on ostracism. This occurs when a person or group of persons who refuse the orders of a king or the decision of a community are banished from the community thus resulting in the victim and its generation being called Osus.
Though racism in its real sense may be less blatant in Nigeria, its prejudicial existence is however undeniable in the contexts of religion, Church denominations, gender inequality, tribe, sexual orientation, culture and many others that have awakened much hue and cry in the Nigerian society.
A dicey situation posted on Facebook sometime ago of a young woman from eastern part of the country engaged to a man (also from the east) whose origin was traced to the ‘Osus' and consequent rejection and vehement refusal of the girl's family to consent to the union, sent me down memory lane to the time a woman in my neighborhood attempted suicide over her fiancé’s family rejection of her, reasons being that her ancestral lineage traces back to the Osus.
In my criticism of this obnoxious way of bringing dichotomy between people of same country and even tribe, a vox pop was carried out to garner and decipher the public's take on this. From the story on Facebook, it would not have mattered had the lady's family not revolted against such union and its imminent solidification. They had threatened to extricate her completely from the family and community through ostracism.
However, while several respondents advised her to stop such marriage plans forthwith as she may be imprecated with misery along with her spouse and subsequent transfer to kids yet unborn, others criticised the barbaric act and condemned it entirely, urging her to take the matter to God in prayers and then go ahead with the marriage plans.
Some said there were curses meant for those who hobnob with the Osus termed ‘accursed lot'. But a strong point scored by a respondent was that there are no curses whatsoever. The cultural bigots only purport such shenanigans according to inherited beliefs. “They are mere beliefs of the Igbo ancestors as once you are a slave, you are one because of a curse of poverty or lack of material things from the gods,” she said.
However, while several persons, spoken to from selected Igbo regions strongly advised against marriage between a freeborn and an Osu, a community leader in one of the villages in Anambra (wish not to be named) told NLB, “the issue of the Osu caste system has been existent for ages in the eastern part of the country and I have never considered it a good thing. I mean why should a brother discriminate against his brother? We are all brothers and sisters, so long as Nigeria is concerned. I keep telling people, discrimination in whatever form is racism, yes, if you don’t think we are one for one stupid reason or the other, and consider yourself better than I am or any other person, it is racism.”
When asked if he was of the Osu lineage, the chief said, “I am not my dear. I'm a freeborn but I don’t discriminate.”
A respondent advised that a person of the so called Osu caste system, would not have to worry over rejection in association should they indulge in inter tribal marriages and let the freeborn marry themselves.

No doubt this topic is fast becoming cliché, for too much ado have been made over nothing and since this is not the 19th century, we should stop the discriminations already because ‘before God there is neither slave nor free', traditional bigots would of course counter with ‘give to Caesar what’s Caesar's and to God what’s God's.’ But before you give anything to Caesar, first ask yourself ‘who Caesar help?’
source: http://naijalocalblog.com.ng