Some food for thought
When Am I A Nigerian? —Chichi Aniagolu-Okoye
March 08, 2010 10:29, 29,849 views
I often wonder what it would be like to be a Nigerian. Many of you may find this odd as my name suggests that I am a Nigerian. Yes, but that is not where it ends? How can I consider myself Nigerian when riot after riot, unrest after unrest, tells me clearly that I am not a Nigerian? I am told that the recent Jos crisis was a fight between indigenes and non-indigenes. I am told that in certain states of the country, children who may have been born and raised in that state but whose parents do not have ancestry in the state are made to pay higher school fees, because they are not ‘indigenes’. This is regardless of how long their parents may have lived in the state, which, in some cases, is longer than those calling them ‘non-indigenes’. How can I be a Nigerian and be made to pay higher school fees in another territory within the same country? I am told that in certain parts of Nigeria, a woman who comes from elsewhere but is married to someone from those parts will not get a job in the civil service for this reason. How can one feel Nigerian when even though one has lived in a certain part of the country all his/her life, one has to return to one’s ‘state of origin’ if one wants to run for political office, even if one has no clue about the place? Furthermore, is it not a bizarre practice that in Nigeria you are encouraged to go to your ‘home town’ to vote?
So my big question is: how can someone who is a Nigerian be a non-indigene of anywhere in Nigeria? I am obviously missing something, because since states and the federal government have allowed this anomaly to continue, it suggests a confusion over which status––being a Nigerian or being an indigene of a locality––carries greater priority.
How then can we wonder why there is little or no commitment to the entity called Nigeria by those who are referred to as Nigerians? If the Nigerians whose ancestry are within the borders of the country are aliens once they leave their ancestral homes, what then is the fate of those who naturalise as Nigerians? Where do they come from? Why do we allow them to become citizens if ancestry is what matters? One of the first steps to nation building is getting citizens to have a sense of belonging and ownership of the country. In Nigeria, government has reduced this to jingles on the radio and adverts on television, but the real actions that are required to make people have a sense of belonging are neglected. I believe it is criminal for a person who has lived all his/her life in a certain area to be considered an alien simply because his or her ancestry is not within that geographical area. It is worse when the various tiers of government give legitimacy to this action. The irony is that the same Nigerians in authority, who will kick against so-called non-indigenes getting ahead in their state, will be the first to tell you how well their children, who have taken citizenship of foreign countries, are doing in their adopted lands!
This is beyond mere sentiment. For me, this is one of the core reasons for our underdevelopment; because people do not feel free to fully invest in or pay taxes where they live as they are not sure when they would be made to leave. By the way, part of what encourages people to pay taxes is the notion that their being taxpayers gives them a say in the society they find themselves.[b] So you find the Igbo man who has lived in a remote northern community unwilling to even erect a good structure for the shop from which he earns his living because he fears everyday that the shop would one day be destroyed, so why put in anything but the minimal? [/b]If this man felt safe and secure and a part of that community, would he not have built a supermarket, or also pioneered a town union to develop the place as is done where he comes from? Would he not have taught that community a thing or two from what he learnt from his wide travels? But of course, because he does not feel safe, he does not fully participate in community life and as a result, the people in turn distrust him and continue to view and treat him as an alien whose only interest is making money out of them. A vicious cycle is then created where the man puts nothing into the community because he does not feel integrated and the community resents him because he is not participating in community life and in the end, makes the man’s worst nightmare to come true; a riot starts and his shop is burnt and if he escapes with his life, he thanks God that he had the good sense not to have invested more than the minimal in his business. In the end, everyone loses.
This cycle can be halted, nonetheless. The beauty of a democracy is not that it makes infrastructural development happen faster––it often does not. Rather, its beauty lies in the opportunity it gives for the aspirations of the people to be heard and realised. There is, therefore, no better time than now that we are in a democracy for the National Assembly to outlaw every occasion that defines a Nigerian within the territory of Nigeria as a non-indigene. That this has not been done so far is incredible, but it’s better now, than later or even never. I appreciate that there may be the concern that such a law may result in mass migration to states that are considered wealthier than others and thereby create a burden for those states. In that case, we can also borrow the practice in other climes and enact rules and regulations which limit certain benefits to only people who have been resident within that jurisdiction for a certain period of time. The key factor is that any citizen can reside in that territory for the requisite period to meet the eligibility requirements.
We must understand that it is only when Nigerians begin to feel at home in every part of this country that they can begin to feel and act Nigerian. Won’t it just be wonderful to meet a Bayo who proudly tells you he is from Imo State, or an Emeka who says he is from Kano, or a Shehu who says he is from Akwa Ibom? I close my eyes everyday and dream of such a Nigeria. This is one of the first baby steps of nation building and if we want to be a nation, the government must show Nigerians that they are truly Nigerians in every territory of this richly blessed nation.
God bless Nigeria!
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I am told that in certain states of the country, children who may have been born and raised in that state but whose parents do not have ancestry in the state are made to pay higher school fees, because they are not ‘indigenes’. This is regardless of how long their parents may have lived in the state, which, in some cases, is longer than those calling them ‘non-indigenes’. How can I be a Nigerian and be made to pay higher school fees in another territory within the same country? I am told that in certain parts of Nigeria, a woman who comes from elsewhere but is married to someone from those parts will not get a job in the civil service for this reason. Is the above Kano state and others? |
