Opinion: Nigeria’s unity: Who is afraid of ‘Wazobia’? By – JAMES ALABI
Listening over the years to an appreciable number of reasons on which the arguments against the dismemberment of Nigeria state and the dissolution of its ethnic and tribal constituents are premised, I can only but wish that the political class as well as the many ahistoricalsentimentalists understood what the concept of ‘unity’ pre-supposes in its essence.
The reader should not be swayed by the gushesandhasty conclusionsof the unscrupulous agitators who argue that we are a people from different languages, history and cultures whose co-existence is not only accidental but also unnecessary and impossible, and so, must be allowed to go their own ways.
Without prejudice to a dialogue-predicated agitation for self-determination, facts that are based on rational thinking should first be invoked and put on the table to see if truly Nigerians cannot live together in defiance of the differencesthat characterize their respective existence and begin to dissect the dynamics of the process of achieving unity.
As a matter of fact, philosophically speaking, in the ancient doctrine of Discordia concors, harmony is a direct product of the co-existence of conflicting elements; thus a close relationship between unity and disunity is not only possible but also necessary to be able to emergea unified system. In fact, democracy, the popularly acclaimed master of all systems of government harbours the co-existence of unity and disunity. So, the in-dwelling of thosenatural elements — linguistic, cultural, religious, and political — with theiroppositesand a frantic effort to synergize and reason productively will produce a nation where injustice gives way to its opposite, that is justice; retrogression to development; emotion to reason; and oppression to freedom and liberty.
Nigerians must first understand that the difference in language and culture is a great potential for unity and development of the country wherein human rights are not only upheld but that each person is accorded the respect and dignity which he deserves.
The leader as well as the led must appreciate the power of the metaphysical – if you like moral- dimensions of unity. The question should be more bothered on the process that guarantees unity and elements that strengthen it, rather than the superficial singing of unity in the air without a deep appreciation of its emergence and core values and meaning.
In his paper titled “The Concept of Unity in Musical Analysis: Some Ontological Issues, William van Geest of the McGill University opens up an unfamiliar, and perhaps untrodden territory when he says that “two or more elements are unified when they have logical coherent features.” And that unity means ‘vital, necessary interconnectedness of the elements’ of a system.
So, a deep and critical look at the fundamentals of unity, one cannot but agree that nature has presented Nigeria with the capacity to become united and reach a height beyond limit. But the challenge is the process of harnessing the various conflicting elements to be able to move from potential or virtual to real unity. And that is what the people, particularly the government should be concerned about rather than the bossy “Nigeria unity is not negotiable” rhetorics.
One element that unifies a people is language. In fact, Eamon de Valera, Ireland greatest 20th century freedom fighter and political figure, puts it succinctly that “language is a chief characteristic of nationhood, the embodiment, as it were, of the nation’s personality and the closest bond between its people.” For him, further,no nation that desires greatness would “abandon the language of their ancestors, the language which enshrines all the memories of their past.” And nations must realize that without their language they would sink into an amorphous cosmopolitanism, making them to exist “without a past and a distinguishable future.”
I begin to think, like millions of other Nigerians who are on the same never-trodden path with me, that the understanding of unity in the warped Nigeria-type democracy and political experience is pole apart from that which substantially constitutes it.
As a matter of fact, the reader must be reminded that the concept ‘Wazobia’ was an unalloyed merger of three different languages, which originated from three ‘warring and conflicting’ linguistic frameworks of Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo. The three elements unified in the perfect acronym simply means ‘come’,as ‘Wa’ in Yoruba, ‘Zo’ in Hausa, and ‘Bia’ in Igbo.
The word emerged shortly after the introduction of the 50 Naira note in 1991 by the General Ibrahim Babangida repressive military junta, to add to the existing denominations in the Nigeria financial sector.
While, it may be premature or perhaps absurd at this time to begin to think of emerging a home-grown language that every Nigeria can relate with but effort must be underway by indigenous language researchers and research institutes in Nigeria to begin to think in this direction.
Growing nationhood in the sense of Nigeria means that the country must define her language in terms of a unified system of communication as well as the end for which the people intend in their agreement to live together as one. What this essentially means is that before a Nigeria system can be said to be unified, there must be things that necessarily connect the people; thus, a people can only be said to be united only in the sense that they share common objective through the deployment of the seemingly conflicting but complementary elements of language and culture.
Again, the ministry of education at all levels must be made to wake up to its responsibilities of intense supervision of primary and secondary schools, particularly the private-owned ones, where the speaking of native languages has become a taboo and in fact an abomination for the native speakers of the different languages.
But this has to be preceded or run concurrently with a framework of reviving the linguistic consciousness of the people through continuous engagement of their native languages. The formal system may not entirely work here as there are many leaners in various communities in the country who will require that they are educated in this line informally to be able to communicate the purpose correctly.
In the 23 and 24 November 2015 edition of the Guardian newspaper, I advocated- and that position has not changed though- that bringing Nigeria together will mean that two of the three major languages (to start with) in Nigeria are mandated for learners across the country.
The National Institute for Nigeria Languages (NINLAN) must also be allowed to have a direct impact on the educational system by inculcating some aspect of its curriculum into the primary and secondary schools with a view tomandating the teaching of indigenous languages in Nigeria.
In doing this, the institute – which is under the direct supervision of National University Commission (NUC) in collaboration with other educational agencies should either directly or in proxybe mandated to ensure that the three core languages (without prejudice to others in subsequent considerations) are taken and used to admit candidates into higher institutions of their choice, as against the use of English language.
Beyond certificationism, NINLAN should ensure that their constant engagement of the languages are taught and made to penetrate into the mental constitution of Nigerian language speakers and those who take them as second language through promotion of indigenous thinking.
In recognizing and appreciating the multi-linguistic nature of the Nigeria people, it will not be out of place to take the three major languages to every part of the country and start to engage and educate the people on the need to embrace these languages and pick any of their choice.
Could the Igbo learner, for instance, be made to take a course in both Hausa and Yoruba languages, without prejudice to their mother tongues? Can the three major languages be made compulsory at every level? In this sense, the people are brought closer mentally and their sense of bond and togetherness is enhanced immensely.
One wonders how a people can be said to be in unity when large percentage of the populace largely erode away the languages of their ancestors, discard and continue to closely get familiar with colonial language. Yes, learning foreign tongues is not out of place in this age of globalization, but the promotion of native tongues should take precedence.
While the introduction of Arabic language into academic curriculum in some states in the country might not be entirely absurd, effort must be intensified to promote indigenous languages over these foreign linguistic frameworks, which more often than not make the average Nigerian leaners think that their native languages are inferior, and even, to some, barbaric.The idea of the Arabic language might have whipped up sentiments because the proponents have not taken enough measure to educate the people about the power of language and the need to learn and appreciate it, especially in this age.
Still within the catchphrase of the globalization immunity, Nigeria cannot be excluded from the emerging civilizations. Revelations continue to show that a great number of new languages will emerge with many countries trying to develop their own linguistic structures that will be either interdependent or completely independent of existing ones.
The peoples of Denmark, Germany, Holland, Norway, China, India, for example have been beneficiaries of this development. The preservation and transmission of their unique cultural and language powers has greatly contributed to the people’s great sense of patriotism and nationhood among their citizens, thus impacting on the economic growth.
Many of these countries are composed of populations ethnically and linguistically fractionalized like our own dear Nigeria. But the difference will be in their willingness to allow their unity to co-exist peacefully with disunity with a view to growing a nation of their dream. In the meantime, the colonial linguistic developmental framework or the China example can help to serve as a guideline towards the process of emerging a new national language here.
As popular and as widely spoken the English language worldwide, it is still ranked 4th adrift China’s Mandarin, India’s Hindi/Urdu, and Spanish among world top ten languages of native speakers, in a research report by Eric Gunnemark.
In fact, the US Council on Foreign Relations in 2011 had instructed that the promotion of foreign language should be a ‘national priority.’What this means for Nigeria is that we must consciously grow an indigenous linguistic framework that will not only be embraced by the nationals but also have the capacity to be sold to foreigners in export investment market, thereby yielding huge returns for the nation’s economy.
A report in 2011 showed that the worldwide language learning market (all languages combined) generated a hefty $58.2 billion with the United States admitting that “exports have accounted for half of their post-recession economic growth, and that “future US growth will increasingly depend on selling US goods and services to foreign consumers who do not necessarily speak English.”
So, the lesson is simple if Nigeria fails to develop a national language or deliberately decide to exterminate the existing ones, then we sell our future and discard the impact of this on national economy. The Council further predicted that “The global economy is shifting away from the English-speaking world. Since 1975, the English-speaking share of global GDP has fallen significantly and will continue to fall. The Chinese economy will surpass the US economy in size soon after 2030. Latin America (Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking) and South Asia (Hindi- and Urdu-speaking) are growing strongly as well.
Nigeria has a lot to gain in promoting her languages and deliberate effort must be made to make this languages work so we can sell them and our market to the world. Nigeria has an edge over many other economies being a global market. While language will unite the people, the sense of patriotism that will emerge will give birth to a combined effort towards growing the domestic economy with foreign investors forced to learn the languages and
The necessity of making Nigerians live together as people united in heart, mind and body is as equally important as the political answer sung in ‘restructuring’. The wide imbalance between the mindlessly rich and the hopelessly poor class of the society will be bridged and the future of the unborn Nigerians will be better for it.
James Alabi, editor and public affairs analyst, 08039696286, [email protected]
