Published in Data Dive
When we speak of Nigeria as comprising of Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo, and other ethnic groups and believe the politico-economic power struggle is really between these 3 named groups alone, do we not unconsciously refer to others as dots on a piece of paper?
May 29th, 2023
When Lagbaja (Bisade Ologunde) founded Motherland in 1997, his desire was to relive the moonlight tales of the past, creating a mythic scent that imbues the native soul with the potpourri of its musical inheritance.
In choosing motherland over fatherland, Lagbaja asks for authenticity with regard to our native selves without the martial allegiance that fatherland often requires.
While the conflicted history of our fatherland – bloody coup de tats, civil strife of genocidal proportions, and religiously executed murders – force selective amnesia on our original ethnic, cultural, and religious heritage, reflections on the motherland present history as a creative and curative art.
Thus, instead of prevaricating on or postponing a necessary census, or worse still, shying away from identifying our ethnicities or religious affiliations as in the recent censuses, the motherland asks for honest recollections – of who we are, how many we are, and what is gone right and wrong, as the natural building blocks for restructuring the fatherland.
Source: Wikipedia
Globally, the fatherland forces people from various races to construct conflicted histories of God, gods, goddesses, and mortal forbears. Motherland simply asks for honest recollections.
For instance, when the US Congress names bills after people or events, they make not just rational laws but establish those letters as sacred history and consensus solutions to lived problems.
In the same vein, if we attempt an honest recollection of Nigeria in the past 30 years (June 1993 – June 2023), for instance, Buhari’s recognition of June 12 as Democracy Day makes the day more humane and naturally historical than May 29, 2023, one that bears no existential significance.
In that equation, Dr Stella Adadevor, who saved the nation from the index case of the Ebola Virus, would have more than a street named after her in Abuja. Would a Stella Adadevor Award for Outstanding Bravery in Medical Science and Practice afford a more honest recollection of this outstanding mother in Motherland?
When President Muhammadu Buhari referred to agitators from an ethnic group in Nigeria as just a dot in a circle, many thought the remark was disrespectful to that group. Yet, in a way, we all unconsciously say the same of our fellow siblings of Motherland.
How?
When we speak of Nigeria as comprising of Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo, and other ethnic groups and believe the politico-economic power struggle is really between these 3 named groups alone, do we not unconsciously refer to others as dots on a piece of paper?
This is what Fatherland forces us to do: rank strength by comparing numbers across groups. Instead, Motherland ranks strength by the outworking of diversity across these groups.
This is why people from ethnic minorities like Barack Obama and Rishi Sunak lead in the United States of America and the United Kingdom. It is the outworking of developed systems.
And here is the potential strength of Nigeria, our Motherland.
At least 31 of the 36 states of the federation and the FCT have more than one ethnic group that is indigenous to their state.
The ethnic groups are also spread out such that 59 of the 317 ethnic identities in the country are indigenous to more than one state. The remaining 258 ethnic groups can each be found in one state.
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When we speak of Nigeria as comprising of Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo, and other ethnic groups and believe the politico-economic power struggle is really between these 3 named groups alone, do we not unconsciously refer to others as dots on a piece of paper?
