By Femi Fani-Kayode
Permit me to begin this contribution
with two incontrovertible assertions.
Firstly, had we successfully answered
what has come to be collectively known
as the ''Nationality Question'' in the
'50's and '60's there would have been no
civil war in 1967. Secondly, had we not
chosen to forget our differences but
instead had we tried to understand them
the last fifty three years of our existence
as an independent nation would have
witnessed far more unity, stability and
progress than it has done.
The agitation and quest to answer the
''Nationality Question'' in Nigeria will not
stop until the question has been
successfully answered no matter how
long our leaders, politicians,
professionals and intellectuals ignore it
and attempt to brush it under the
carpet. The quest to properly identify,
situate and define the rights, duties and
obligations of each and every one of our
numerous nationalities in a wider Nigeria
will never end until it is achieved. As a
matter of fact given the sheer
desperation of each of the major ethnic
groups to win control at the centre in
2015, the activities of Boko Haram, the
agitation of the Niger Deltans, the
resurrection of MASSOB, the
unmistakeable resurgence of a rather
extreme form of igbo nationalism, the
activities of various ethnic nationalist
groups and the growing religious and
sectarian divide in our country it has
only just started in earnest and it is a
cause that I have chosen to dedicate my
life to. As long as I live I will resist the
idea of any part of yorubaland being
turned into a ''no-man's land'' where the
yoruba people are meant to live as
second class citizens and never-do-wells
and where they are treated like filth. If
that makes me a tribalist or a bigot, then
so be it.
If loving my nationality, which comprises
of 50 million yoruba people, and adoring
my nation of 160 million Nigerians at the
same time is a crime then I am guilty of
that crime. I do not have to love one at
the expense of the other. We are not
America which is a nation that is made-
up of immigrants and ex-slaves and a
country which literally wiped out the
indigenous population that they met
there when they arrived who were
known as the Red Indians. We are not
Americans who somehow found their
way into the world barely three hundred
years ago but we are Nigerians. And
each and every one of the great and
numerous nationalities that make up our
beautiful nation has a noble heritage
that goes back for thousands of years.
We may not be as developed or as
wealthy as they are but we know who
we are and we know where we are
coming from. That is why I am proud of
this country and all the various
nationalities that make it up regardless
of our difficulties and challenges.
Yet we are not so different to some
others. In the United Kingdom there are
basically four nationalities. The English,
the Welsh, the Irish and the Scottish.
Each of these four nationalities is actually
a tribe yet you very rarely find a British
person who will tell you that he is not
proud of his Scottish, Welsh, Irish or
English heritage AND at the same time
proud of his nation. He is first an
Irishman, a Welshman, an Englishman or
a Scot before being British even though
he cherishes being both. He does not
have to sacrifice his Irish, Welsh, English
or Scottish heritage and roots for Britain
and neither does he have to sacrifice
Britain for his heritage and roots. He
balances it well, he has the best of both
worlds and this is indeed a wonderful
thing. He derives his strength from both.
He enjoys being Irish, Scottish, English or
Welsh and cherishes it deeply just as
much as he enjoys and cherishes being
British. And today, centuries after Great
Britain was established as one nation
under one Crown and one Royal
Sovereign the British citizen still
cherishes his primary nationality and
tribal heritage so much that power has
been gradually devolved from the centre
at Westminster in London to the various
tribes and ethnic nationalities in the
regions over the years.
Such is the agitation for the restoration
of ethnic identity and devolution of
power in the United Kingdom today that
Scotland is preparing for a referendum to
determine whether her people should
remain in Great Britain or not. This is a
beautiful thing. It is known as self-
determination and no human being
ought to be denied that right. Taking
pride in your primary roots and your
ancient heritage is not a crime. That is
how it is meant to be. It is only in
Nigeria that we call this perfectly natural
and wholesome phenomenon
''tribalism''. We give it an ugly name and
we ascribe to it an even uglier
connotation. Everywhere else in the
world the reality of ethnic nationalities is
acknowledged, respected, valued,
cherished and well-managed.
As a matter of fact such diversity is a
source of strength and pride for many.
For example in the nation of Belgium
one will find that there is an ancient
dichotomy and deep rivalries between
the Flemish people of the north and the
Waloons of the south. They speak
different languages and have a
completely different history and cultural
heritage yet these two great and ancient
nationalities or tribes are proudly
Belgian and they rally under one flag.
This is how it ought to be everywhere. I
have no hate or ill-feeling towards any
other ethnic group in this country or
anywhere else. God knows that that is
the truth. If I did I would say so and
damn the consequences. Racism and
tribalism is below me and such
primordial traits offend my sensibilities.
To harbour such views is well below my
intellectual and spiritual dignity. Those
that know me well can attest to this. I
am just too big, too large-hearted and
too well educated for that sort of thing
and most important of all my christian
faith and heritage does not allow me to
look down on anyone or any other race.
We are all children of the Living God. I
have as many non-yoruba friends just as
I have yoruba ones. I look down on no
other human being, no other race and no
other nationality and I do not claim that
the yoruba are better than anyone else.
What I insist on though is that I should
be allowed to acknowledge my history
and to preserve my ancient heritage,
culture, values and ethos. I also insist
that my people should be allowed to
develop at their own pace. I am not
ashamed of who I am and where I come
from and had it not been for others
holding us back I know where the south
west and the yoruba would have been
by now in terms of development. And
neither would I go to England or America
or Enugu or Kano and claim that I own
the place or that my people built it from
scratch and that they generate all the
money that is there. I would never say
or do such a thing and neither should I
be expected to sit back quietly when
someone says it about my land, my
people and my territory. In this debate I
have threatened no-one, I have incited
no-one, I have accused no-one and I
have not sought to silence anyone with
threats or blackmail. I have not
expressed hatred towards anyone. Yet
my family has been subjected to insults,
threats, humiliation, hate-speech,
misrepresentation, falsehood,
intimidation, calls for arrest and lies by
some people who really ought to know
better. My late father of blessed
memory has been insulted during the
course of this debate as has my late
mother, my wife, my children and my
people from the south west. We have
been called all sorts of names and
subjected to the most filthy and
disgraceful abuse and malicious lies.
And now some ask ask me if I will ever
stop this fight for the rights of my
people. The answer is that I will not stop
because a price has already been paid. I
will never renounce my views. As a
matter of fact now more than ever
before I see how important it is for us to
ensure a certain degree of separate
development in this country and to hold
on to our heritage because we are just
so different. Those that have chosen the
path of aggression and open hostility and
that seek to suppress our voices,
intimidate us into silence and drown us
with their propaganda are vulgar, crude
and rude. That is their way. They are
also experts at telling lies. Yet they
cannot silence a whole nationality or just
wish us away. We are here to stay. I am
not looking for trouble and I abhor strife
and violence. To me this is simply an
intellectual exercise and we can agree to
disagree and still remain compatriots and
friends. However I will not give up my
identity because that is all I have. I will
not betray the dreams of my forefathers
and their aspirations for our people. For
four generations now the Fani-Kayode
have contributed positively to the affairs
of this country. Unlike some of those
that are bleating and insulting us we
have paid our dues. Like millions of
others we have a stake here and we are
from yorubaland. I have a little fulani
blood in me too and I am very proud of
that but I am first and foremost a yoruba
and I will live and die for the yoruba and
indeed for my nation Nigeria if needs be.
I have written about virtually every
major ethnic group and nationality in this
country over the last twenty three years
and sometimes in very harsh terms,
including my own. Yet it is only when I
disagree with some of our igbo brothers
and sisters and dispute their claims on
Lagos that all hell breaks loose. Well one
thing is clear. Whether they like it or not
as long as God gives me life I will voice
out my opinion and articulate what
millions of the yoruba are secretly
thinking on this matter but are too shy,
gentle and polite to say. They may not
want to talk but I will talk for them and I
will voice their legitimate concerns about
the future of every yoruba child in an
increasingly hostile, ugly and
unsustainable Nigeria. All the smear
campaigns in the world cannot change
that and neither can it stop it. If God
does not smear me or mine, no man can
smear us.
This battle is more important to me than
politics or anything else. It is a battle for
the very survival of my people and my
nation and with my intellect, my pen, my
tongue, my knowledge and my wits I
intend to fight it till the day that I die. It
is my right to voice out my views and
create awareness about the imminent
danger that my people are facing of
being overwhelmed by others that were
never really part of them. They say our
territory is ''no-man's land'' yet they will
never offer us theirs in return or even
allow us to build there. Who is the fool
here? And when we complain they have
the nerve to insult us. Enough is enough.
It stops today. I am not a racist or a
bigot but I believe that I have a right to
defend that which is mine and to
preserve my identity. Though I love
being both, let it be clearly understood
that I am a yorubaman before being a
Nigerian and I make no apology for that.
We ignore our differences at our own
peril and this is not only naive but it is
also exceptionally dangerous. They made
the same mistake in Yugoslavia through
the '70's and 80's until the explosion
came out of the blue in the '90's and all
hell broke loose. No-one saw the war
coming in that country except the more
discerning and brilliant minds who had
been shouting for decades before it
came that their very own ''nationality
question'' had to be answered and that
Colonel Broznin Tito's dream of an
eternal and everlasting old Yugoslavia
was unsustainable. No-one listened to
those discerning voices and consequently
millions were killed in the most
horrendous and vicious civil war that
Europe has ever seen. From being one
country where the people and numerous
nationalities were compelled to ''forget
their differences'' by law, Yugoslavia was
eventually broken up into five sovereign
independent states as a consequence of
fratricidal butchery and unrestrained and
all-out war. I pray that we never break
up and that we never witness or fight
such a war in Nigeria. The answer is to
understand and settle our differences
and not to conveniently forget them.
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