Nigerians from perfect ethnic groups

A Nigerian caused a detour on this page. An international issue had been in focus until he misinformed Nigerians, making one feel so strongly enough to engage him. His name is Tony Nnadi, Secretary-General of a group called Lower Niger Congress. He spoke during a TV interview on July 10, 2014; the National Conference and Nigeria’s challenges was the topic. In his reaction to a question, Nnadi said among other things that one of the reasons Nigerians have problems is because the Fulani collaborated with the British colonial administration to amalgamate Nigeria in 1914. He must have been referring to the many Fulani rulers who constituted North’s traditional authority at the time. But a careful look at the records would show that the Fulani, or northerners generally, were in no position in 1914 to collaborate with the British to amalgamate Nigeria. If anything they would have worked against it, because even Sir Ahmadu Bello had since blamed the British for “the mistake of 1914”. The British unilaterally amalgamated Nigeria, and it was for economic, administrative and exploitative reasons as I explained in the three-part series titled, “Before the amalgamation of 1914” on May 2, May 9, and May 18, 2014. Nevertheless, I will examine this matter from another perspective. But first, it’s necessary I state my credentials for engaging Nnadi.

I had my National Youth Service Corps scheme up North, in Gombe town in the Old Bauchi State. I had actually desired to be in the North and my intention was to know more of Nigeria and make friends across the Niger. Both have been achieved and I can state that, two decades later, I am still in touch with many of my friends across the North, Fulani and non-Fulani, at least three of whom have been state commissioners under different administrations in Gombe since 1999. Others have been senior aides to governors, members of Emirate Councils, professionals and top civil servants both at the state and federal levels, all of whom I am proud to have as friends and they always express their joy of knowing me too. I spent years in the same environment after my service year. Since I left, I have been returning to the North regularly, and in the process I wrote a book that had me travelling across the North in pursuit of facts and pictures of historical landmarks, as well as engage in extensive research at the Archive. Work on a second book is ongoing, so the years and the activities leading to the amalgamation of 1914 are what I am familiar with. So, what I find in the records is the basis for this rejoinder.

One, colonial officers were the ones interested in merging the North and the South. As of 1897 when Fulani emirs were totally hostile to foreign forces, some British officials had been canvassing for a merger and London did set up a Committee to look into the merits. F.D. Lugard continued with this push when he became High Commissioner of Northern Protectorate in 1900. It’s noteworthy that he resigned his appointment in 1906 over the refusal of London to approve his proposal for amalgamation. Two, the first two decades of the 1900s witnessed a tense, but evolving relationship between the colonial administration and North’s traditional rulers. The Sultan of Sokoto, Attahiru, died on the battlefield in 1903 fighting Lugard’s army on Gombe territory. Many other emirs left and were replaced by the British. In those early years, emirs were essentially reticent, cautious; it took them a while to get their bearing in a new relationship in which colonial officers could dethrone and send any of them on exile. The emirs actually spent this early period learning the rudiments of modern administration and had little understanding of the increasingly changing political landscape of either the entire North or the South, not to mention being able to gang up and collaborate with the colonial administration to get the North merged with the South.

As of 1914, no emir was involved with general policy matters beyond learning how to administer his domain the modern way; none was present at the formal ceremony of the amalgamation on January 1, 1914; they merely took passing note of the event of the merger with a South they had obvious reasons to be wary of. As of the time the amalgamation happened, Southerners were even more aware of the reasons and the consequences, with the Lagos press and the educated elite agitating that, with the amalgamation, Yoruba parts of Ilorin area should be joined to their kinsmen in Oyo Province. Fact is, the first consciousness of ‘North’ didn’t arise until the likes of Sir Ahmadu Bello, Sir Kashim Ibrahim from Borno and others across the North met as students for the first time at the Higher College in Katsina in 1922, graduated in the late 1920s to become North’s first set of educated elite, and as political elite from the 1950s, adopted policies and postures meant to protect ‘North’. The third reason Nnadi’s claim is wrong is that, as of 1914, North’s emirs were not in touch with one another in that formal sense as to be able to pressure colonial officers to merge Nigeria. It was in 1934, and for the first time, that the North’s Lieutenant Governor, G.S Browne, invited traditional rulers to a meeting in Kaduna. I have read the report of the Resident of Bauchi Province to Browne in which the Resident mentioned that the Emir of Gombe was pleased about the meeting, and requested that such a meeting be held regularly. Other emirs across the North also made the same request because many of them had not had personal contacts after the Uthman Dan Fodio Caliphate was taken over by the British in 1900.

Nothing in the records gives credence to Nnadi’s claim, one that is inaccurate, misleading, and can come only from any Nigerian whose information has been sieved from myths that many spread as their knowledge of Nigeria’s history. Much of these I have read in debates among Nigerians online and in print, and I have been shocked at the level of ignorance many peddle as fact, using the same to stereotype and tag ethnic groups which they have had little or no contact with – North or South. And the few that do have contact, especially those that take part in the NYSC programme, my experience is that many misbehave where they are posted and become bad ambassadors of their own ethnic group, or they simply close their minds to understanding other ethnic groups. In the event, they return home more biased than they left. As I like to state in conversations, the problem of Nigeria isn’t ethnic grouping, it’s the elite with their vested interests, those who know the right path to take Nigeria but often gang up across ethnic lines and go in the wrong direction for ulterior motives; the same jointly loot the treasury in Abuja yet return home to their people to blame other ethnic groups for the problem of the nation.

There’s no hiding from the fact that there are flaws in the Nigeria project, and they must be corrected. But it’s depressing that some Nigerians would rather engage in ethnic bashing for every flaw, tell a history that they have little grasp of and misinform the next generation in the process, thereby adding to the problem. Such Nigerians promote ethnic hate, carrying on as though their own ethnic groups are perfect and others have nothing good about them. Meanwhile, many educated Nigerians who should make conscious effort to understand ethnic groups other than theirs and try to see something good in them refuse to do so. There’s something unhealthy about this both for the individuals concerned and the country. But if anybody chooses to remain in that state, at least they shouldn’t tell Nigeria’s history wrongly. For in doing so, they do more harm than good.