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Ojukwu’s Philosophy Of Detribalism: The Panacea To The Nigerian Political Problems
CHAPTER ONE -- [Total Page(s) 5]
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Collaborating the existence of tribalism in the army, Janet Mba-Afolabi said:
records
have shown that the army is one in which an officer’s ethnic origin
determines the nature of strategic appointments he holds.[10]
The
absence of Federal presence in certain areas of the country has no other
reason but tribalism. The whole of South-east has up until this stage,
no international airport or seaport irrespective of the fact that there
is a big market they will serve. The federal roads in this same zone and
other zones are death paths rather than high ways. It is even a “divine
decree†that people from certain areas can never be among the service
chiefs, inspector of police, defence and agriculture ministers to
mention just a few. Many of the policies initiated by various
governments had, in all intent and purposes, tribal undertones. A case
in point is the indigenization policy.
In the various states of the
federation, there is rancour everywhere because a particular part of the
state will like to take all. People tend to forget that “we cannot
dominate; all we can do is to accommodateâ€.[11] These instances show the
extent we have allowed tribalism to take us. It is against these that
Gbulie observed that:
… the most dreadful of our county’s insuperable
monsters was tribalism, Nigeria’s number one killer disease, a canker
worm as old as the hills, the fundamental factor of the problems of
Nigerian unity.[12]
1.2 The Meaning of Tribalism
Etymologically,
the term tribalism has its root and origin from the Latin “tribusâ€
(tribe) meaning “one third†which originally referred to one of the
three peoples that united to found Rome. The Encyclopedia Americana
defines tribe as ‘a group of families who have a feeling of community
through occupying a common territory and following similar customs.’ In
the same vein, the Chambers 21st Century Dictionary defines tribe ‘as a
group of people, families, clans or communities who share social,
economic, political ties, and often a common ancestor and who usually
have a common culture, dialect and leader.’ More recently, the term
tribe has been applied to any people having a common territory and
customs who are not part of a state society. One thing that is basic
with tribe is that the members of a tribe are usually held together by
common dialect, customs, social, economic, political sameness as well as
observing major religious ceremonies. Tribe and tribal have been
observed as convenient terms for indicating that a people still follows
customs rather than state law.
In view of the relatedness of tribe
with ethnicity, it is pertinent to define ethnicity as well. According
to the Chambers 21st Century Dictionary ‘ethnicity means relating to or
having a common race or cultural tradition, seen from the point of view
of race, rather than nationality.’ In other words an ethnic group
consists of a people who share the same culture, and we know, culture
comprises the whole gamut of what the people do. This being the case,
tribe and ethnicity are interwoven. This perhaps explains the reason why
Ojukwu used both of them interchangeably. In this write up therefore,
the two terms will be used to express the same idea.
Tribalism is the
extreme and obsessive protection of one’s tribe to the detriment of the
whole nation. The chambers 21st century dictionary defines it ‘as the
system of tribes as a way of organizing society, the feeling of
belonging to a tribe.’ It is a political attitude guided by tribal
customs. While tribe sets out to define a people, tribalism is mainly
that negative political attitude that tends to favour only persons from
one’s tribe. But this usually retards national growth. Tribalism
promotes such evils as social injustice, inefficiency, moral decadence,
unproductivity, and mediocrity. Tribalism thwarts every effort towards
unity and integration in any multi-ethnic/tribal nation.
In an
attempt to explain tribalism, Achebe has it that “tribalism is
discrimination against a citizen because of his place of birthâ€.[13]
This for me is a practical definition of tribalism, but something
appears to be missing in it. One’s place of birth may not be his tribe. A
Yoruba may be born in Onitsha. This does not make him an Igbo.
Tribalism applies more to one’s tribe of origin. A lot of southerners
are born in the North, but they greatly feel the pains of discrimination
irrespective of the fact that that is their place of birth. Likewise, a
lot of Northerners have various places in the south as their places of
birth, yet they are seen as strangers. For Achebe,
tribalism
manifests itself in acts such as preventing a citizen from living or
working anywhere in his country, or from participating in the social,
political, economic life of the community he chooses to live.[14]
In what seems to be the most insightful explanation of tribalism, Ojukwu has it that
tribalism
is nothing other than ethnic nationalism i.e. a limited, constricted
nationalism, a stunted growth. It means a nationalism that has become
fixated in adolescence. Tribalism is a consciousness, which emerged as
the broadest viewpoint in a society organized on personalities.
Tribalism, as a social philosophy, is based on the construction of a
series of imaginary boundaries which establish the “us†and the “themâ€
dichotomy.[15]
These explanations show that tribalism is such a
negative force. It divides a nation more than it builds it together. One
factor that encourages tribalism, I think, is the fear for the truth
about how the various components of Nigeria are; we are afraid to come
together. Many Nigerians, no matter the intellectual heights, are
afraid of coming together as a united entity. Hence, tribalism has
become the proper avenue of dealing with this fear.
CHAPTER ONE -- [Total Page(s) 5]
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