IMHOTEP: Nation building

It was the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo who once described Nigeria as a “mere geographical expression,” echoing the nineteenth century Italian patriot and philosopher Giuseppe Mazzini.

For centuries the Italian peninsula comprised a series of principalities - Genoa, Milan, Florence, Venice, Piedmont, Tuscany and Sardinia - entities that were more or less engaged in perpetual internecine strife with one another. For them, the idea of Italia was a mere abstraction.

Indeed, Niccolo Machiavelli derived his famous treatise on power from empirical observations of the duplicities of these Italian princes. The unification of the country required the passion of a Mazzini and the revolutionary will of a Garibaldi.

Contrary to what is imagined, nations do not emerge out of nothing. The idea of a nation has to be fought for -- often with sweat, blood and tears. The Germans, for example, had their Bismarck while the Czechs had their Masaryk.

Nation building requires political skills of the highest order. This is one area, where, I am afraid, our leaderships have failed abysmally. We have become miserable tribal and religious exclusivists.

The only thing that truly unites all Nigerians is football; and even then, those who run the sports administration have brought to it their rent-seeking, myopia and incompetence.

However, it is a gross exaggeration to describe our country as a “mere geographical expression”. The various communities that later became Nigeria had, like the Italians before them, been in intensive interactions with one another over centuries.

For example, the ancient Bini had historic links with Yoruba land and Onitsha; the Igalas of the Middle Belt have direct links with the Niger Igbos; the Kanuri have genetic-cultural links with the Yoruba as do the Nupes,

while the Jukuns have historic links with Kano and the other Habe Kingdoms of the northern savannah. The region of the ancient Nok civilisation extends from Southern Kaduna and Plateau to the outer reaches of Bauchi, Gombe, Nasarawa and the Benue Valley.

Contrary to what many imagine, the birth of Nigeria was not a mere accident of history. This is not to say we are a nation. Not only are we not a nation, we have, over time, grown dangerously apart like a couple going through the motions when the actual marriage is already on the verge of dissolution.

No group of people have enjoyed tempting the fates like we Nigerians do. On more than one occasion,we have stared at the precipice and have beaten a hasty retreat.

Our ramshackle behemoth of a state has often veered dangerously close to the edges of the Niagara Fall of history, only to stagger back like a drunken sailor.

Ever since our bitter civil war, more than 300,000 of our people have perished from ethno-religious conflict. We have become the abattoir of the innocents, the slaughterhouse of the saints and the killing-field of martyrs.

More than ever before, our ethnic, regional and religious divisions run deep; eroding the reservoir of social capital without which nation building is an impossible task.

Many people wonder why our country does not work. Nigeria cannot work unless and until we forge a common consensus about our nationhood and collective destiny. Great enterprises cannot succeed without the moral foundation of trust among its principals.

Such redefinition requires some constitutional reengineering that restores faith in government and its institutions, based on the ideals of the rule of law, participatory democracy, transparency and accountability.

It also requires a new ethos of leadership that recognises service as the hallmark of statesmanship. In this business, symbols and gestures are as important as substance.

The year 2010 marks our Golden Jubilee. There are those who would insist that there is little or nothing to celebrate. January next year also marks forty years since the ending of the civil war. Among the ancient Jewish people, Golden Jubilees began in the forty-ninth year and continued until the fiftieth.

Our Jubilee is an opportunity for renewal and hope; an opportunity to return to our first love -- to the Old Time values of being our neighbour’s keeper.

I have travelled through the length and breadth of this country; from the warm springs of Ikogosi to the immortal hills of Abeokuta; from the breathtaking landscapes of Holy Mountain in Obudu to the sacred rocks of the Jos Plateau; from the primordial creeks of the Niger Delta to the bustling commercial vitalism of Aba and the expansive grasslands of Katsina and Sokoto to the ancient savannah of my birth.

Ours is a truly blessed country. What remains is to make of it a great nation.

editor@234next.com