Fear And Hatred: Nigeria, A Nation On Edge

It has been proven time and time again and even Social Scientists have come to confirm it and the belief, that fear evokes intimations of mortality. Researchers have found that people who start imagining their own death will begin to sanction extreme measures to prevent it from happening. A good case in point was the American-Iraq war. The Bush White House used the 911 terrorist attack to its full advantage.

After 911 made the people fearful to begin with, they spiked the juice with talks of weapons of mass destruction and mushroom clouds reminiscent of the use of the atomic bomb on japan during the Second World war and now the American public was ready to embrace all manner of responses, including war on a country that as awful as its leaders may have been, had never done anything to the United states directly and had nothing to do with the 911 terrorist attacks.

Then it became conventional wisdom ever since then and has worked marvelously for the Republican Party. It is therefore not surprising that Donald Trump, the Republican Party Presidential flag bearer in the November elections is using the same tactics as the corner stone of his campaign, by raising the crescendo of the threat of terrorists and the menace of immigrants.

It was the same tactics employed by the Brexit conservative advocates in Britain. For them once again it was the fear of immigrants from poor EU countries. It is a tactics based on empirical evidence or may I say evidence based. With Trump for instance, he stoked fear of Mexicans and shot up in the polls. He added in Muslims and his high poll numbers held steady. Which of course brings me to Nigeria “the fear of the other ethnic group”. The Yoruba’s fear the Igbos invading their villages, towns and taking over lagos. For the Hausa/Fulani once again it is the fear of the Igbo’s and to a lesser extent a distrust of the Yoruba’s whom they sometimes tolerate as many of them practice the Muslim religion, but who they only consider convenient political allies in helping them retain their grip on power. For the Igbo’s it is a distrust of both the Yoruba and Hausa/Fulani, both of whom they perceive rightly or wrongly do not like them or wish them well.

Such hate, distrust and fear of the other was the precursor to the Nigerian Civil war. All over the world, the effect of fear is the same aka Bosnia, Somalia, Rwanda, the Middle East etc, just to mention a few. When we look at the havoc fear has caused in various parts of the world it would be fool hardy to think that it will never happen in Nigeria. But we have joined the world. We are now part of the world, the weary and beleaguered world and if there is one thing we should learn, it is that anything can happen anytime, anywhere. Just a few days ago here in the United States, the specter of fear once again reared its ugly head.

The fear of white policemen of young black men who they perceive as criminals, possibly armed and dangerous, hence they should be shot if the need arises. In Nigeria the fear of those who do not practice our religion, look and dress like us or speak our language is the order of the day since independence. But it wasn’t always this bad. It has actually gotten worse. Just a few days ago, a Yoruba deaconess who was evangelizing in the early hours of the day in a section of Abuja was brutally murdered for her religious views.

In kaduna state the Governor has introduced or intend to promulgate a law which would require anyone who wants to evangelize in the state to procure a license to do so. In kano state, the Sabon Gari market populated by Igbo traders was recently burnt down with no compensation of any kind to the traders. In the South East there were reported incidents of the killing of some Northerners in retaliation for the attacks by herdsmen. In lagos just before the elections, some Igbos were forcefully deported out of the state. No less a person than the Oba Of lagos was alleged to have wished the Igbos drown in a lake. This is how bad it has become.

To the Hausa/Fulani and Yoruba the average Igbo man is a money grubbing greedy individual who likes to control everything and everyone around him. For the Igbos the average Yoruba man is a two faced individual who will sell you out in a minute, hence he just can’t be trusted. The Yoruba man will readily tell you he would rather align with the Hausa/Fulani against the Igbo man who is seen as a mutual enemy.

To them, the Igbo’s would take over Lagos if given the chance and invade their villages. Besides they are seen as rival competitors for scarce federal job openings. Again for the Igbo’s the average Hausa / Fulani man has no love lost for them and will kill them at the slightest provocation. The list of grievances real or imagined is far too long to mention here but the fact is that there is the existence of fear and prejudice in every ethnic group.

Every human being it has been proven has the capacity of being as evil and as prejudiced as you can imagine. They can also be as good as you can imagine. People basically live up or down to what you expect of them. When a group of people are stereotyped we unconsciously do our best to not only justify those stereotype but also look for any available evidence to justify it. So we often see the objects of our stereotype as either living up or down to our impressions of them. This is the crux of our problems in Nigeria.

One of the reasons behind the National Youth Service Scheme was to help eradicate these stereotypes and hatred amongst young people. Evidence is abound that the experiment has not really worked. One of the reasons being that one year is not enough time to totally eradicate these prejudices and distrust of others, hence you need to live and possibly work in a state for more than one year to fully understand the people. But after their one year service how many of these Corpers are offered jobs by the establishments in the states they served in? The number is dismal to nothing.

Just like here in America, black and white children alike do not know what racism is. They don’t choose who they play with. It is usually their parents who tell them why they cannot play with that white or black kid. It is the same in Nigeria the adults and parents are the ones who tell their children the Igbo, Hausa or Yoruba man or woman cannot be trusted. They are told they cannot intermarry etc.

Take a look at Facebook comments on any issue of national concern. The abuses and insults start raining down before you get to read the third of fourth comment, and it is always on ethnic grounds mostly by young people. The same young people we have hinged our hopes for a more united country. Most Facebook comments exhibit a “celebration of ignorance’ and a loss of appetite for moral outrage.

Today in Nigeria there is a growth of intellectual sclerosis. We have embraced ignorance with its attendant consequences. Of course we know consequences are not coincidental. They are a result of years of accumulation of doing the wrong things.

Today in Nigeria our ethnic fault lines have deepened so much that we will need a miracle to bring the country back together. Every day in Nigeria the angels of our better nature are challenged by demons of hatred, distrust, discrimination and ethnic preferences. Again today in Nigeria there is a rising tide of disaffection and resentment percolating beneath the surface like a volcano waiting to erupt.

Yet our leaders either do not seem to be aware of it or simply do not care. For some the solution is simply. Just crush any group that creates any problem. But then we forget that violence begets more violence and in the end it solves nothing but create more hatred and resentment. So the question is, what do we do?.

The solution has to start with the average Nigerian citizen because we have a shared responsibility in tackling this problem. It is time for us to figure out as Nigerians that the bluster and gasconade of fear mongers hasn’t done us much good. We need a national reorientation of our values. We must learn to eschew hatred and distrust and embrace one another as simply human beings like us irrespective of their faults and assumed stereotypes. We must stop talking past each other and ignore the extreme voices on both sides for they have been loud and dominant. We must teach our children that all human beings are Gods children created in his image and that they must accept them for who they are without prejudice.

We must teach them that religious differences are okay and that there is nothing wrong for people to choose a certain religious pathway to God different from ours. That the fact that they do not practice our chosen religion does not make them evil or bad people. We must learn to treat strangers living amongst us as honored guests who must be protected and treated with respect.

There is also a role for our community leader, elites and the Government. Our leaders and politicians alike must be mindful of the policies they adopt and their consequences. There must be an element of fairness, less favoritism and nepotism in the performance of their official duties. They should be careful in the comments they make as they are capable of causing more resentment and hatred, and this is very important because the poison of rhetoric have devastating consequences. Every section of the country must be treated equitably and with respect to their culture, religious practices and customs. This where the President comes in. As a leader and the father of the nation has he done his utmost to assuage the fears of vulnerable Nigerians who have been victimized?

The answer is no. At a time when his reputation for hawkishness cultivated during his military career and his first stint as Military Head of State should give way to a comforting demeanor and measured responses to issues of national concern he has either kept silent or ignored them. Compare this to the responses of the American President Barack Obama who personally visits the venues of terrorists acts or police killings of innocent citizens and vice versa and who goes out of his to douse tensions and console victims families.

For instance his alleged comment reminding the Igbos of how many of them died during the last civil war, a comment that was viewed by some as a veiled threat was ill advised, of bad taste and regrettable. Does this alone make him a bad person or insensitive to the feelings of the people the comment was directed to? No, but comments like that contribute to more resentment and hatred.

A president or any leader for that matter needs to appeal to the better nature of his people and not their worst instincts. Reminding a people who lost a war and who still feel that they have not been fully welcomed or accepted back with open arms as full citizens of how many of them were killed in that war is not the best antidote to the culture of fear and hatred that persists in the country today. The task before him is to make a serious and persistent attempt at deescalating the tensions in the country. It is Boko Haram today, Niger Avengers, IPOB and just recently a new group in Cross River state.

The question now is where do we go from here, when the mere suggestion of substituting “State of Origin” with “Place Of Birth” as a national policy have met with disapproval and opposition from some sections of the country. All you need to do is to just mention it in social media and see the kind of hateful responses you will get. Which goes to show how dysfunctional and disunited Nigeria has become. We preach unity but we oppose anything that will bring about such Unity. Another case in point is the reluctance to implement the recommendations of the National Conference which some see as a solution to most of our problems and the opposition to it by those who are presently benefiting from the Unitary system of Government we are presently practicing claiming it is federalism. The truth is that you can’t stoke fear if you cannot reassure.

Those who stoke fear and resentment are so damn sure they know how Nigerians of different ethnic groups will respond or react and most cases their assumptions have been proved right. If we as a people do not do anything to arrest the present climate of hate in the country we will simply be postponing our doomsday. Something needs to give and soon too if we want to survive as a nation. When we marshal the connective of WE. When we marshal trust and the engagement of the people, good things happen.

There must be a sustained discussion on fear and hatred until it is seared into our national psyche. Right now there is a section of the country that tunes out the president when he speaks and there is another section that are all ears. It must not be this way. The president must be able to speak for all Nigerians and to get everyone to listen, he must earn their trust. Attitudes need to change. Perceptions and stereotypes must be debunked and discarded or else the slogan “To keep Nigeria one is a task that must be done” will remain what it has always been, an “empty slogan’

Nnanna Ijomah . A resident of New York City is a Political Science Lecturer.

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Articles by Nnanna Ijomah