SHALL WE DIVIDE

 

Following the events of the day and the recent occurrence in the Nigeria system over the the past few months, "should we divide the nation" is a question not too strange to most of us anymore. Although, as rhetorical as I would have loved this to sound, it is still a question I would really love to have an answer to. 

From my last blog post about the recent tension in the country which I tagged Amalagamation, I have come to realize that breaking up is an option that can't entirely be ruled out. The question no one is asking though is "how many part should we divide if we are dividing?" As funny as this might sound, it is a question that might make us want to reconsider the Nigerian dream or better decided our division in a more smoother manner which won't lead to further problem even after the division. 

Lately, I took a fancy in politics; not to partake in it though, but to understand how it works. One of the things I've found out in my research about the whole politics thing is that, for a nation to survive it has to have a particular degree of Homogeneity. Okay, back to my article, I'm still tempted to ask; "with the degree of diversity in the Nigerian system (having over 250 ethnic groups and over 2000 dialects) how many are we going to divide the nation into?" Let's start our analysis from the South.

Before the Amalagamation of Nigeria by that guy with moustache (Lord Lugard), Nigeria was divided into the upper Niger and Lower Niger which in turns became the Northern protectorate and the Southern Protectorate. This is a very clear pattern, the problem with this pattern of division though was that these people were simply grouped together because they occupied the same land mass, not because they were the same. So, even though the nation became one (well, according to the map you have) it is still seen as simply the north and the south (let's not talk about the size of the north compared to the south today). 

In the South today, we have predominantly the Igbos and the Yorùbás. Although these does not remove the fact that we have more than 50 other tribes that have been marginalize and which will always want to express their own pain too when opportunity comes. Some of this groups include the Benin, Urhobo, Ishan, Ikwere, Ibibio and so on. Funny story, this people have a clear language specific and unique to their tribe which no one else speaks, a culture which is entirely theirs, a belief system that can't be found anywhere else and a way of life that's entirely theirs. So, how do we do them in our breaking up?

The different dialects? Nah! Let's not go into that if we should decide to go into that, we'll never have a way forward because even within the west alone there are more than a 100 dialects of which even the next yorùbá man can't understand. Something is common to this group though; a shared ancestral belief. In China of over a billion citizens, there is still a very deep degree of Homogeneity, in case you have study a particular degree of history too or you've been arrested by your dad to watch aljazeera news too one time or the other, you might have been told that upland China and the lowland China but the let me tell you one funny thing; The Chinese Mandarin is common to their language, and they still believe they have a shared ancestral background. 

Now that you understand that Ikwere have a different ancestry to the man from enugu and even very far from the Benin all within the south which still includes the Yorùbás; how many do we divide the nation? Should we still divide? If we eventually do, what do we do to the minority groups?

I wish I can answer those questions myself too, but now that you're here maybe you can answer them for me, but in any eventuality you can't, I'm glad I've stirred your deep thinking.

Hey Siri, play me "it's Friday" by Mufasa😎🥂

Till Monday, may the universe guide your way💚❤️🕊️