The British declared a Southern nigeria state. That was an artificial creation – By Hakeem Bello-Osagie

By HAKEEM BELO OSAGIE.

1. The British declared a Southern nigeria state.
That was an artificial creation. It created a Lagos colony. That
was an artificial creation. It merged the two into a Southern
nigeria . That was artificial. The British then merged a southern
Nigeria with a northern nigeria. That was artificial. I do not
believe that the amalgamation of north and south Nigeria was any
more artificial that the british grouping together of various
groups into a southern nigeria.

2. There is a common misperception that there is a
such a thing as a natural nation as opposed to an artificial
nation. There is no such thing as a natural nation in my mind .
Differences and commonalities are selected and defined and
heightened by elites and leaders. If you look at virtually any
country you will see a history of differences and commonalities.
Nigeria is no different. Leadership brings together people by
stressing commonalities and uniting with a vision. Italy was for
centuries 30 plus fiercely antagonistic city states. Germany was a
collection of Kingdoms. India was created by the British uniting
many kingdoms. Spain arose after the marriage of two people heading
different kingdoms. The only country in the world that had a single
tribe , a single religion was Somalia. It was the worst example of
state failure. Somali leaders found new differences. They stressed
clans within tribe and that became the dividing line.

3. I believe that the search for a natural basis
for the division of country based on a common identity is a doomed
exercise. Because identities are socially constructed. You can
continue to subdivide yourself ad infinitum. Agitation for state
creation has shown this.

4. My father used to tell me that when he grew up
he was told that he was a Bini man. He later on arrival at Kings
College became a Westerner. ( western region). He then became a Mid
westerner in 1963. He was later renamed a Bendelite. His son Keem
started as a Bendelite and then later became an Edo man. And now in
his old age he is a South South man. All these identities are fluid
and made by men and women. I have decided to be a Nigerian and an
African.

5. My father used to tell me that even the words
Ibo and Yoruba are relatively recent terms. He told me that when he
was in Kings college a man told you he was from Onitsha or Aba and
he referred to himself as an Easterner. He hardly referred to
himself as Iboman. Other friends would refer to themselves as Egbas
or Ijebus not as Yorubas. If we had a leader like Nkrumah or
Nyerere or Nehru who stressed national commonalities we would have
made progress. Instead we had leaders who united Ijebus and Egbas
into Sons of Oduduwa. We had leaders who united the competing
kingdoms of Bornu , Katsina Zaria Kano into a North. They had
competed for centuries. The villages and towns of Onitsha and Aba
were turned into an Ibo nation.

6. Our leaders in the 1940 and 1950s made choices.
There was nothing natural about the decisions they took. The
divisions they met were no greater than in Ghana China India
Tanzania Uganda. They simply lacked a national or continental
vision. We must not repeat their mistakes.

7. The failure of Nigeria is for me not so much a
failure of structure but more of values and vision. The study of
businesses and political systems confirms that values always
outweigh structures as the determinant of success. My time in
university over the last few years has led me to this conclusion.
That is why I am skeptical of the current rush for restructuring
along lines of identity. Or rather a supposed common
identity.

8. We should be able to have multiple identities
and a common Nigerian identity . I do not think it is too late. In
fact I think that heading anywhere else is the beginning of a never
ending set of subdivisions birthed and accompanied by violence
until we become 20 or 30 Benin or Togo republics. Irrelevant. And
still badly governed.”