FEATURE ARTICLE

Babs AjayiThursday, July 23, 2015
[email protected]
Gatineau, Quebec, Canada

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NATIONAL IDENTITY AND LOCAL RELEVANCE:
IGBO ELECTORAL VICTORY IN LAGOS STATE

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here was so much hoopla when it looked like some Igbo folks were going to deliver Lagos State to the PDP during the last election. The hoopla degenerated into a mess when the Oba of Lagos threw his hat into the ring and made some comments, which have now gone down as divisive and unwise. The Oba was wrong, but the Igbo reactions were even unbecoming. If we truly wish to build a national identity and truly national brand, then we need to deemphasize local government and state of origin in the way we do things, and the best place to start that is in the recognition that a wo/man belong to the place of her/his abode. Essentially, that is where he makes contributions: pay all sorts of tax, own and run business, move around and/or take transport, use utilities and enjoy essential social services. S/he has a stake in that immediate locality and spend majority of a calendar year there, and as such should have a voice there. S/he should be able to genuinely claim that s/he is from that area. It does not matter if her/his name is Nkechi or Okechukwu, he should be able to put Surulere Local Government down as her/his local council of origin because s/he has earned a right of belonging.

But once a woman/man is able to lay claim to a local government, s/he should no longer be allowed to double dip by then returning to Owerri or Enugu during the national census exercise to be counted there. That will amount to fraud and a double face. If s/he is allowed to return to Owerri to be counted there, then s/he would have added to the population of an area from where s/he is not putting anything in or benefiting from anything. This has often been the way some Igbo do things - not all of them for sure. The fact is that Igbos love the schools and colleges in the South West not because those schools and colleges are superior to the schools and colleges in the East but because those institutions are relatively free, particularly during the second republic, which was one reason why some of them liked Chief Obafemi Awolowo.

Despite the poor state of educational institutions in the East, school fees there have remained a strong part of education in that part of the nation. Parents in the East pay so much for primary, secondary and higher education that are available for nearly next to nothing in the South West, hence the exodus of Easterners to the then LOOBO States of Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Bendel and Ondo States. There were so many Igbo girls at St. Theresa's College in Ibadan where two of my sisters attended and so many boys in my own school, Ibadan Boys' High School (IBHS, a school founded by the late Chief Timothy Lajide Oyesina in May 1938. There were more Igbo boys at IBHS in 1980 than there were Yoruba residing, schooling or working in Onitsha then. The founder of Ibadan Boys High School even put aside ethnicity and appointed the father of the former double-portfolio, below-par minister, Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Dr. C.O. Okonjo. Dr. Okonjo was principal of IBHS from 1952 - 1955. I do not think any Yoruba man held any kind of position of responsibility in the East in those days and even today, despite the fact that many Igbo have occupied many executive positions in Lagos, Ogun and Oyo State. Though we must acknowledge that Igbo people are very mobile and ready to go to places where opportunities exist, the truth is that the openness, tolerance, compassion, willingness to accommodate, integrity, merit-mentality of the average Yoruba and fair play made it possible for Igbo people to thrive and flourish in Yorubaland.

However, I knew of the tough and frustrating experiences of many female teachers from Lagos State in the 1980s whose spouses were transferred to work in the East by either Federal Departments or by companies such as Nigeria Breweries Limited. Most of these women were never absorbed into the teaching service in the East. The few who were taken were forced to accept grade levels way below their current grades in Lagos State. But teachers from the East were often afforded the opportunity to transfer their services to Lagos, Ogun and Oyo States (where I have very good knowledge) without any demotion or cut in grade level. I believe it is this disparity in the willingness to accept other ethnic groups, openness, ability to accommodate others and the desire to give non-natives room to thrive that separate the East from the West. I worked in a consulting company in Lagos for a few years and things went well; Igbo and Yoruba people were employed there, but an Igbo partner always find a way to bring in and supplant his own 'people' over others. This got worse when he was appointed senior partner. Most Yoruba often insist on merit and will often ensure those qualified are offered appointments notwithstanding their ethnicity. De-emphasizing ethnicity is a major project Nigeria must embark on today. The Igbo nation will benefit from an all-inclusive and accommodating society, a plural society that is open to every ethnic group and allows all ethnic groups to contribute and thrive. Muhammed, Diete-Spiff, Adebola and Waziri should be able to buy a plot of land in Enugu, occupy a job position at the Enugu State Secretariat and be proud to call Enugu home the very same way Okechukwu, Ifeanyi, Okoye and Ifeoma are currently able to buy homes, work and happily reside in Lagos, Kaduna, Jos, Ibadan, and Abeokuta.

Preventing or limiting the settlement of none-natives in the East is nothing but self-isolation, and this will continue to hinder development in the East. Integration has helped and continue to help the United States remain a super power - tapping into the collective skills of a diverse nation of peoples from around the world. One key step to ensuring a plural and broad society is by removing local government and state of origin from every local and national form used for recruitment and appointment. Mention and reference to local government and state ought to be removed from our labour law, and there should be no room for sex, sexual orientation, date of birth and age in resumes. Our labour law are still very primitive and very unfriendly while encouraging all sorts of discrimination against ethnic groups, women and minorities.

Nigerians should be free to live in any part of the country and be free to claim her/his local government of residence as her/his own. A Yoruba man should be able to stand for and contest an elective post in Nnewi. A Fulani woman should be able to open a store at the Ariaria International Market in Aba. It should not matter where your parents came from for as long as s/he lives in Washington, DC, he will be referred to as a native of Washington, DC. Nigeria as a nation will benefit from a rapid de-emphasis on ethnicity and local government of origin. My daughters have never spent two consecutive nights and are yet to string together a total stay of one month in my town and 'local government of origin.' They do not even know the location of the local council and are not likely to be interested in the house their grandfather left behind there. My mother often pray that I will take the gains of foreign labour home, but each time I will point out to her that I am already at home. Where a wo/man resides is her/his home. I will go to the City Hall here and get my driver's licence renewed within minutes. Meanwhile my Nigerian driver's licence has expired since time tete. I do not use it and I do not need it. It expired more than a decade ago and I can only drive in Nigeria with an international driver's licence, which is alright by me.

First Bank wants £30 for BVN registration from diaspora customers

I have an account with First Bank Nigeria. Before now First Bank and other Nigerian banks wanted their customers in the diaspora to come to Nigeria for the BVN exercise, but now First Bank of Nigeria wants to conduct the exercise in some selected countries starting with the UK but FBN wants each customer to pay £30 each for the exercise! The Bank Verification Number (BVN) exercise was recently extended from June 30, 2015 to October 31, 2015 by the Central Bank of Nigeria. You begin to wonder how many times a customer have to register to open an account with a Nigerian bank. If the measure is to prevent abuse within the banking system and curtain looting by kleptocrats, the people at the apex bank and the commercial banks know that BVN registration will not stop looting. Only honesty, integrity good behaviour will stop it, along with severe punishment for the thieves and their collaborators inside the banks. James Ibori, Joshua Dariye, Diepreye Solomon Peter Alamieyeseigha and their comrades in looting did not carry hundreds of millions of dollars in Ghana-must-go bags to the UK. They transferred the loot through the banks and wired the funds around the world. First Bank wants £30 from mostly retired people who only use their bank accounts to collect dividends of a few hundreds of naira yearly. FBN takes SMS Alert Charge, COT and VAT on COT from every transaction yet the bank wants £30 for BVN? This is unacceptable, greedy, shameful and disgraceful.

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