The politics of hatred, religion and tribalism and my encounters growing up as a Nigerian

 

Painting of a Nigerian Market: Humankind Wiki

The Latin expression Nulllius in Verba, which translates to "take nobody's word for it," best expresses the conflicting viewpoint of Nigerian politics. Nigeria is a visibly multicultural nation with entwined histories and cultures that are divided by arbitrary borders and boundaries. 

I'm from Nigeria's North Central region. The fate of my region has been the centre of the debate, dictated and captained by the political will of elites and the selfish feeling of marginalization harboured by our leaders. Philosophers and psychologists believe that there are no boundaries or limitations to what one can dream of or achieve, but this reality is slightly different for someone of my geographical antecedent. 

Since democracy's inception, the apex seat of power has rotated unevenly across Nigeria's three major tribes, and the decision of who will be president has been heavily influenced by everything frivolous and sentimental, far from competence.

Religion, tribalism, greed, and selfishness constitute eight of the 11 players in the Nigerian political scene if the key factors were to be modelled as a football game. My experience growing up as a young boy in Northern Nigeria has been characterized by the distorted reality of religion.

This unruly experience has several times forced me to question the essence of humanity if unity and objectivity were to be missing from the picture. In 2005, when I was living in Abuja with my aunt, my impressionable senses became receptive, and I could tell that Olusegun Obasanjo was the country's president and Nasiru Ahmed Elrufai was the FCT minister.

Just like almost every child, I had dreams of becoming president one day, and even though it’s so statistically obvious and impossible for every child who wishes to be president to become one, the satisfaction and fulfilment that comes with the hoax and illusion is a great boost to a child’s confidence. 

I have been a Muslim from birth, and all through my stay in Abuja, I have never really questioned the efficacy and authenticity of my religious beliefs. I always attended my Islamic school and was one of the top students in my class. This changed when I moved to Kaduna (Northwest Nigeria). I was repeatedly asked by classmates in primary school why I had Alabi in my name, my innocence about the political divide orchestrated by politicians and fuelled by our local religious leaders was not evident to me yet. Arna was a popular word used to refer to the Christians in my class at that time and even though this practice didn't go down with me, I had to shove it down my throat in order not to be perceived differently. 

Arna is the Hausa word for pagan and the word does not in any way portray the reality of Christianity which had existed prior to the practice of Islam. I could perceive the brewing hatred for Christians and people from the south and one very intriguing fact was how these traits were displayed by young pupils within the age range of 8 to 11 years.

These experiences altered my perception of life, I was robbed of the freedom to be an ordinary human as I have been created. I was forced to see the differences in humanity that weren't there. Whenever it's time for politics, the hatred ties are been solidified and the differences sharpened. Irrespective of what the case may be, the local masjids will always tell us that we need to vote for a Muslim, the belief is that pagans shouldn’t rule over Muslims, even if the Muslim candidate is glaringly unqualified.

Experiencing all of these triggered in my mind, the question of whether democracy was an Islamic ideology or a pagan ideology. The ancient Greeks founded democracy, and obviously, they were not Muslims. Why then should Islam be incorporated into a pagan ideology?

I am not writing this article to help amplify any hatred you might have for Northerners, The north remains one of the most accommodating and fair regions in Nigeria and I will tell you why. I enrolled at Kaduna Capital School Malali in the year 2011 for my senior secondary school, I was one of the youngest in the whole of my level and was appointed to be the class representative in my SS2.

I was chosen based on competence and not sentiments even when the Alabi in my name and my inability to speak proper Hausa at that time was unclarified and still evident. I was also loved by my classmates and teachers and even got appointed for academic and religious awards. Our head girl at that time was an Igbo from South Eastern Nigeria.

The composition of my school’s prefect was a good mix of diverse individuals, maybe too diverse for a state government school standard in Nigeria. This goes a long way to show that my experiences and perceptions in childhood were a reflection of the decay at the societal level of our communities fuelled by poor education and ill-knowledged religious leaders. 

In 2014, I graduated as the best overall student for my set. I was miraculously omitted from a scholarship list because the person in charge gave the power to select recipients to her niece who was also a student. The young lady copied and pasted a list of her friends. They underwent specialised training prior to beginning their studies under the scholarship and barely 10% of them survived. You might be surprised why I highlighted this experience, we’ll talk about that later on.

After my inability to get admitted into the university, I enrolled at  Federal Cooperative College Kaduna. The college was located in the Christian-dominated Southern region of Kaduna State. And just like every other Higher institution of learning, there was a student union government. Prior to and throughout my stay at the college, The president of the Student union government has always been a Christian and from a tribe indigenous to the area where the school was located.

The election has since historical times been influenced largely by Tribe and Religion. While at the college, I have witnessed students openly and confidently pick sentiments over competence. If you are not a Christian, you are viewed as a foreigner or an alien, there was this invisible and cowardly fear of not wanting to be dominated by someone of another faith.

The presidential seat was contested more like a ceremonial seat rather than a position meant to cater to students' welfare. It was pitiful to see that education and enlightenment were still subordinates to ignorance and fanaticism. I was able to make good friends among the Christians because some of them perceived me as less of a Muslim because of my academic intelligence and outspokenness.

There’s this misconception some southern Christians in Nigeria have about northern Muslims, they are viewed as less knowledgeable or not intelligent and outspoken, that was the picture created by Nollywood movies. Northerners are very intelligent people, even though some of them might not be good at speaking English.

But, would I even consider myself a northerner, I was viewed as a southerner in the North and a northerner in the south? As funny as this might seem it helped me develop a personality that could accommodate individuals from all regions,  and then my popularity grew. I could speak Hausa more fluently, I was fluent in English and I knew some bible verses off-hand; to cap it all, I also had a Yoruba name. That made me very versatile. But yet, there was one more barrier if I was to contest, I was not one of the anointed tribes. 

I got admitted to study insurance at Ahmadu Bello University. And I was opportune to stay in the same room with a contestant for a political position. For the purpose of this article, I will call him Mahmood, He was a very good individual and friend and whatever I will be writing here doesn’t define him.

Mahmood is a Muslim Yoruba originally from the southwestern part of Nigeria but was born and has lived the bulk of his life in Northwestern Nigeria. He was contesting for the position of president in his department while we were living together. His main opposition (David not his real name) was a young man, A Christian from the southern parts of Kaduna.

David had the support of the Head of the department due to their closeness and maybe similarity in faith. He got sponsorship for his campaign fliers and posters and all indicators pointed that he was likely to win the elections. Mahmood was afraid, he felt bad that David was being favoured and then decided to play his cards.

Since Mahmood lived in the north, he was able to speak Hausa like a native speaker, so he was able to win the minds of most of the Hausa northerners in his class. One day while we were in the room and he was doing his permutation, thinking hard about a possible loophole he could explore, He bumped into the religious card and vowed to take advantage of it.

His political masterpiece was to create and solidify the religious discord among the department members. By so doing, he could win the minds of those who were not formerly on his side. In conclusion of my story, Mahmoud won the Elections. He was able to bank on the deficiency of human mentality to clinch a political seat. Should we call him a political strategist? He might have performed well as a leader but the but(s) are obvious. Religion shouldn’t be a tool to sow hatred and discord, neither should it be a tool to facilitate one’s selfish interest. 

I could remember seating with a faculty mate one day in the lecture hall, I noticed the young man was rude to me for no reason but I didn't know why. We met some other day on our way from classes and I was speaking in Hausa to some of my mates. The guy looked at me in an awe of surprise and asked me where I am from. I told him, I lived in Kaduna and immediately he shook my hands and his perception of me changed in seconds. He then told me that he thought I was a Yoruba from Kwara. In subsequent days we met, he always waves at me.

I was almost blacklisted in someone’s miniature mind because he thought I was Yoruba. That is how serious these issues are and why we need to clamp down on tribalism, religious fanatism and segregation as much as possible. In the same fate, I strongly believe that the good people who supported me during my stay at Ahmadu Bello University were far much plenty than the ignorant people and they were not necessarily from the same tribe or religion as me.

I will like to highlight that while Religion, sentiments and tribalism play a very great role in the political atmosphere of Nigeria, There are still many more sensible and reasonable Nigerians who have the will, competency and right state of mind to change this trend. The problem is that they feel overpowered by the few unreasonable people and are obliged to believe that history cannot be changed. 

One fact is clear, all regions in Nigeria have both the reasonable type of people and the unreasonable. Despite witnessing a lot of irregularities in the way politics is played in our communities, schools and universities. I am still a strong believer that competence can defeat sentiments. If you are that individual who has strong zeal, dreams and ambitions to do great for your community and country, don't be discouraged by the political atmosphere and happenings. Sometimes, the reasons why we experience what we experience might not be a result of the religious or tribal belief of the leader we have in power but the incompetence and selfishness of that person. That was what led to me losing the scholarship I talked about earlier in this article.

How long are we going to keep voting in bad leaders because they belong to our tribes or religion? Do we not learn from our past experiences or the lessons of other countries? While tribe and religion constitute a great representation of one’s personality, They shouldn't be used as a benchmark for competency. My dream is to one day declare my ambition to contest for Nigeria’s president without being bombarded and condemned because of my tribe or religion and I expect that should be your dream too.

In Islam, It is believed that all humans are equal in the sight of Allah, and only those who are upright and righteous enjoy the privilege of being considered special. Religion and tribe are personal to every individual, but the well-being of human beings is a shared responsibility. We need to look beyond our differences and act objectively, a prosperous Nigeria can only be achieved when Nigerians start to think outside the mental prison created by their selfish leaders.