"THE NATIONAL QUESTION": CAN NIGERIANS LIVE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KADUNA 01485


E.O. 12356: DECL: OADR
TAGS: PGOV NI
SUBJECT: "THE NATIONAL QUESTION": CAN NIGERIANS LIVE
TOGETHER?


1. CONFIDENTIAL - ENTIRE TEXT.


2. SUMMARY: ON AUGUST 20 THE CITIZEN WEEKLY MAGAZINE HELD
AN "ANNUAL DIALOGUE" CENTERED ON THE SUBJECT: "THE
NATIONAL QUESTION: WHAT IS THE ANSWER?" CONSUL GENERAL
ATTENDED THE SESSION, WHICH INCLUDED SPEAKERS KEN
SARO-WIWA (ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIAN WRITERS); COL. (RTD)
YOHANNA MADAKI; FELIX ADENAIKE (FORMER MD OF THE TRIBUNE
NEWSPAPERS); DR. YUSUF BALA USMAN (ABU); SAM IKOKU,
VETERAN POLITICIAN; AND ALHAJI USMAN ABUBAKAR (FORMER
STATE COMMISSIONER AND BUSINESSMAN). THE "NATIONAL
QUESTION," BALDLY PUT, ASKS WHETHER NIGERIANS ARE ABLE TO
LIVE TOGETHER IN ONE COUNTRY. IN VARIOUS WAYS, THE
SPEAKERS OFFERED INSIGHTS INTO THE INTERWOVEN PROBLEMS OF
ETHNICITY, RELIGIOUS DIFFERENCES AND CONSTANTLY CHANGING
POLITICAL ARRANGEMENTS. PREDICTABLY, NO ONE HAD AN
ANSWER. END SUMMARY.


3. IN THE VARIOUS PRESENTATIONS, A RECURRING THEME THE
PARTICIPANTS CHEWED OVER WAS THE MULTIPLICITY OF ETHNIC
GROUPS IN NIGERIA AND THE VARIOUS WAYS, SINCE COLONIAL
TIMES, THE ISSUE HAS BEEN DEALT WITH. WHILE SARO-WIWA,
HIMSELF AN IJAW FROM RIVERS STATE, SUPPORTED THE IDEA OF
AUTONOMY FOR EACH GROUP, FEW OTHERS SAW ANY POSITIVE GAIN
FROM FURTHER DIVISION ALONG ETHNIC LINES. IN FACT,
SEVERAL SPEAKERS STATED EMPHATICALLY THAT THE CONTINUED
CREATION OF NEW STATES HAD ENTRENCHED ETHNIC POLITICS IN
NIGERIA AND INCREASED THE SENSE OF GRIEVANCE AMONG THOSE
MINORITIES WHICH DID NOT YET HAVE A STATE "OF THEIR OWN."


4. THE QUESTION OF RELIGIOUS DIVERSITY AND THE
IDENTIFICATION OF RELIGION WITH ETHNICITY ALSO CAME UP
THROUGHOUT THE DAY. ADENAIKE, FOR EXAMPLE, URGED
NIGERIANS NOT TO SHY AWAY FROM DISCUSSING ETHNIC
DIFFERENCES AS IF THEY DID NOT EXIST. HE STATED FURTHER
HIS CONVICTION THAT IT IS NECESSARY TO FACILITATE THE
PRACTICE OF ONE'S RELIGION WITHOUT THRUSTING THE ISSUE
INTO THE CENTER OF POLITICAL DISCUSSION. IN SAYING THIS,
HE CAME AS CLOSE TO A DEFINITION OF SECULARISM AS WE HAVE
HEARD IN NIGERIA.


5. DR. BALA USMAN CONCENTRATED HIS LEGENDARY FIRE ON
EXPLODING SEVERAL MYTHS OR "FAIRY TALES" WHICH HE SAID
INFORMED MOST DISCUSSIONS OF THIS KIND, INCLUDING THE
CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE THREE SPEAKERS WHO HAD PRECEDED HIM.
HE STATED IT WAS SILLY TO THINK OF ETHNIC GROUPS PRIOR TO
BRITISH CONQUEST OF HAVING EXISTED WITHIN CLEARLY DRAWN
POLITICAL BOUNDARIES, ONE TO EACH GROUP. FURTHER HE
POINTED OUT THAT THE BRITISH TAKEOVER OF WHAT IS NOW
NIGERIA HAD BEEN GREATLY FACILITATED BY THE DIVISIONS AND
ANIMOSITIES AMONG THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES AND DID NOT
OCCUR SIMPLY THROUGH FORCE MAJEURE. FINALLY, SAID BALA
USMAN, THE SIMPLISTIC DISCUSSION OF POLITICS UNDER THE
FIRST REPUBLIC IN WHICH EACH OF THE THREE REGIONS HAD HAD
ITS OWN PARTY BASED ON ITS ETHNIC GROUP WAS ALSO ABSURD.
ETHNIC SOLIDARITY HAS NEVER EXISTED IN NIGERIA, MAINTAINED
BALA USMAN, BEFORE, DURING OR AFTER THE BRITISH, NOR HAVE
POLITICAL BOUNDARIES EVER COINCIDED WITH ETHNIC BOUNDARIES
THERE IS ALSO NO SUCH THING, HE SAID, AS "RELIGIOUS
POLITICS," MAINTAINING THAT THERE ARE AT LEAST 12
MUSLIM POLITIES IN NORTHERN NIGERIA AND NO SUCH THING AS
"THE HAUSA-FULANI." BALA USMAN'S CONCLUSION WAS THAT,
SINCE ALL THESE INTERPRETATIONS OF ETHNICITY ARE "FAIRY
TALES," THE ONLY ANSWER TO THE NATIONAL QUESTION IS FOR
NIGERIANS TO LIVE WITHIN ONE POLITICAL ENTITY AND WORK
OUT A WAY TO DO THIS PEACEFULLY.


6. SAM IKOKU APPEARED TO AGREE WITH BALA USMAN ON
ESSENTIALS, STATING THAT THE ESSENTIAL QUESTION IS "HOW DO
WE LIVE TOGETHER HAPPILY?" HE STATED THAT THE SOLUTION
CANNOT BE FOUND IN THE AMERICAN EXAMPLE (KILLING OFF THE
INDIGENOUS POPULATION) OR IN THE EUROPEAN EXAMPLE
(KILLING OFF EACH OTHER). NEVERTHELESS, HE URGED NIGERIAN
NOT TO LOOK AT TODAY'S SITUATION IN FORMER YUGOSLAVIA
AND THE FORMER USSR, BUT RATHER IN AMERICA WHERE THE
CURRENT RESIDENTS DO LIVE TOGETHER IN HARMONY. FOR IKOKU,
THE NIGERIAN STATE MUST ASSERT ITSELF TO GUARANTEE THE
ESSENTIAL RIGHTS OF PEOPLE OVER ETHNIC AND RELIGIOUS
DIVISIONS, AND IN PARTICULAR THE RIGHT OF PEOPLE TO LIVE
AND WORK WHERE THEY ARE.


7. COMMENT: TO AN AMERICAN LISTENER, THE DISCUSSION WAS
INTERESTING IN HIGHLIGHTING TWO AREAS IN WHICH NIGERIA
DIVERGES MOST SHARPLY FROM AMERICAN PRACTICE. ONE IS WHAT
APPEARS TO US IN THE NORTHERN HEARTLAND AS A COMPLETE
INCOMPREHENSION ABOUT WHAT A SECULAR SOCIETY INVOLVES AND,
OFTEN, WHY IT MIGHT BE DESIRABLE. THE SECOND IS WHAT
IKOKU REFERRED TO, NAMELY, AN UNDERSTANDING THAT A CITIZEN
CAN PRACTICE HIS CIVIC RIGHTS AND DUTIES WHEREVER HE
FINDS HIMSELF. IN NORTHERN NIGERIA, AT LEAST, THE MOSLEM
HAUSA ELITE EITHER CANNOT OR WILL NOT UNDERSTAND WHAT
SECULARISM INVOLVES; IN FACT, MOST OF THEM WOULD REJECT
IT OUT OF HAND. IN A CONVERSATION WITH THE CONSUL GENERAL
RECENTLY, ALHAJI ISA KAITA REPORTED THAT THE GOVERNOR OF
KANO HAD CONTRIBUTED TO A FUND TO REBUILD THE JNI CENTER
BURNED DOWN IN THE KADUNA MAY RIOTS. HE WAS BLANKLY
UNCOMPREHENDING WHEN THE CG ASKED IF A LIKE AMOUNT WAS TO
BE CONTRIBUTED TO THE CHURCHES DESTROYED AT THE SAME TIME.
"OH, NO," REPLIED THE VENERABLE ELDER, "ONLY THE MOSLEM
GOVERNORS ATTENDED THE MEETING."


8. COMMENT (CONT): HAD WE PRESSED THE POINT TO ISA KAITA
AND POINTED OUT THAT MANY CHRISTIANS LIVE IN KANO STATE
AS WELL AS THROUGHOUT THE NORTH, WE SUSPECT HE WOULD FALL
BACK ON THE POSITION MANY EXPRESSED IN THE AFTERMATH OF
THE KANO RIOTS LAST OCTOBER AND THE KADUNA TROUBLES IN
MAY: THEY ARE "STRANGERS" WHO MAY LIVE HERE IN PEACE BUT
SHOULD NOT OVERSTEP THE "BOUNDS OF HOSPITALITY." IN THE
ZANGON-KATAF EXAMPLE, OF COURSE, THE ARGUMENT WAS TURNED
AGAINST THE HAUSAS WHO WERE CALLED STRANGERS BY THE
KATAF. IN NIGERIA, IT SEEMS, YOU HAVE FULL CIVIL AND
POLITICAL RIGHTS ONLY IN THAT PLACE WHERE YOU "COME FROM,"
WHICH, TRANSLATED, MEANS YOUR ETHNIC GROUP OR SUB-GROUP.
IT FOLLOWS, THEN, THAT YOU MUST HAVE YOUR OWN PLACE AND,
IN MODERN PARLANCE, YOUR "OWN" STATE. IT HAS ONLY
RECENTLY BECOME APPARENT TO THE CG THAT NIGERIANS BELIEVE
THIS PRINCIPLE UNDERLINES THE EXISTENCE OF 50 STATES IN
THE U.S. AND, THEREFORE, EXPLAINS WHY SO MANY NIGERIANS
STATE THAT SINCE THEIR SYSTEM IS MODELED ON THE U.S.,
THEY NEED TO HAVE 50 STATES AS WELL.


9. COMMENT (CONT): WHAT WAS REFRESHING AT THIS
CONFERENCE WAS THE DISCUSSION OF THESE ISSUES WHICH ARE
SO OFTEN SWEPT UNDER THE CARET IN NIGERIA. THE AUDIENCE
HAD A FAIR NUMBER OF BUSINESS, ACADEMIC AND MEDIA LEADERS,
AND THE CITIZEN WILL SURELY CARRY MANY OF THE PAPERS IN
WHOLE OR PART. SINCE MOST SPEAKERS DISAGREED WITH EACH
OTHER EVEN ON WHAT THE "NATIONAL QUESTION" IS, HOWEVER,
IT WAS NO SURPRISE THAT THEY COULD NOT COME UP WITH AN
ANSWER IN THE TIME ALLOTED. END COMMENT.


WEINLAND