Ethnic & Religious Integration in Nigeria:
Can we ever experience a society/community in Nigeria where peace and harmony reign? Good question, but it is possible.
Let’s take a trip back in time. Nigeria hasn’t fully resolved many uprising religious and ethnic (inter-tribal) conflicts over time with excellent and well-backed legislation/government policies to curtail pre-existing and future issues. The ethnic and religious lines were always the triggering points in times of political or economic, or religious clashes. In Nigeria, violence is instigated by ethnic or religious extremists or even top influential persons in various sectors. Nigeria is not immune to identity politics and ethnic and religious nationalism.
What is Nigeria?
Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The nation is a sovereign country in West Africa that has been home to several indigenous pre-colonial states and kingdoms and later took its present territorial shape with the merging of the Southern Nigeria Protectorate and Northern Nigeria Protectorate in 1914 by Lord Frederick Lugard (also known as the amalgamation of Nigeria). Nigeria is a multinational state inhabited by more than 250 ethnic groups speaking 500 distinct languages, all identifying with various cultures. The three (3) largest ethnic groups are the Hausa–Fulani in the north, Yoruba in the west, and Igbo in the east, comprising over 60% of the total population. The official language is English, chosen to facilitate linguistic unity at the national level. Nigeria is divided into Muslims, who live mainly in the north, and Christians, who live primarily in the south. The country has the world’s fifth-largest Muslim and sixth-largest Christian populations, with a minority practicing indigenous religions, such as those native to the Igbo and Yoruba ethnicities. Nigeria’s constitution ensures freedom of religion.
Father Figure
Nigeria hasn’t really identified with anyone as its Hero or Father of this nation. Herbert Macaulay in some cases is mentioned the Father of Nationalism in Nigeria but was honoured on the portrait on the ₦1 coin, which doesn’t really have a market value in the country as this time. This nation needs to identify critical persons across all tribes/sub-groups in the country would deserve to be remembered and honored. Nigeria lacks a Father Figure. We have seen opposite cases in nations such as South Africa with Nelson Mandela and Singapore with Lee Kuan Yew. The national founders of Nigeria are namely: Herbert Macaulay (1864–1946), Professor Eyo Ita (1903–1972), Alvan Ikoku (1900–1971), Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe (1904–1996), Chief Obafemi Awolowo (1909–1987), Al-Haji Sir Ahmadu Bello (1910–1966), Al-Haji Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa (1912–1966), Chief Anthony Enahoro (1923–2010), Sir Egbert Udo Udoma (1917–1998), Al, Haji Aminu Kano (1920–1983), Chief S. A. Ajayi (1910–1994), Joseph Tarka (1932–1980) and Dennis Osadebay (1911–1994). But honestly, there could be names that might have been left out in error. A general inquiry or database should be publicized in the country to collate the possible words to honor.
National Unity Accords
As recommended, there is a strong need for National Unity Accords in Nigeria. This will serve as a statutory and legally backed document in legislation or law. Which guides the necessary condition for fostering peace, harmony, tolerance, and unity in Nigerian communities regardless of any change in governments in the future. In the National Unity Accords, all key conflict-war related events, content (audio, visual, and text), and objects in the timeline of Nigeria since independence would be identified, reviewed, resolved, documented, and archived in the National Library/Archives and National or Digital Museums in the country. Key participants of this National Unity Accords would include the National Assembly, Federal Ministry of Information & Culture, National Archives of Nigeria, National Library of Nigeria, National Orientation Agency, National Commission for Museum and Monuments, National Museums, Digital Museums (Public/Private), University Libraries, National Council for Arts And Culture, National Institute for Cultural Orientation, Nigeria Tourism Development Corporation, other government MDAs, and private stakeholders (individual/company).
Monuments
Monuments such as statues, buildings, or other structures should be erected to commemorate notable persons or events. Following the implementation of the National Unity Accords, all monuments (buildings, statues, pathways, and other structures) connected to the critical events in the timeline of Nigeria since independence would be identified, renovated, preserved, and purposed for domestic and international tourism.
National & Official Language
Nigeria has many ethnic groups with various languages. The predominant ethnic groups and languages are Yoruba, Hausa, and Igbo. Nigeria should fully adopt English and Pidgin English as the country’s main languages. English would be maintained for the de facto status, while Pidgin English would be held for the de jure status in the country. That is, English would be the primary language of communication and writing in all activities & sectors of the country. At the same time, Pidgin English would be the second language of communication, writing, and other media in the country to cut the dichotomy between the literate and illiterate populace of the nation. Pidgin English would become the primary means of passing information of public interest to the masses through radio advertising, television, and print media, encouraging the use of Pidgin in movies, music, cartoons/animations, technology, and other audio-visual platforms. Nigeria’s Main and home languages would maintain the status as a means of communication, writing, and speaking. Still, these languages would not be used in the public literature of the Government during official foreign duties. The Government would also prioritize promoting the usage of home languages in schools through the educational curriculum, thereby introducing even more and possibly all home languages in schools.
Religion
All religions practiced in the nation should be identified and registered in a national religion/ethnic government body. There should be checks and balances for the construction and conduct of all religious bodies within the countries. A general call for respect for the immediate environment where there would be self-abiding laws over sound/noise pollution from religious centers, road traffic, and crowd control. No citizen should feel or experience problems while carrying out their day-to-day activities because of religious activities, such as commuting on the roads. Religious entities are to make appropriate plans and provisions for conducting without interrupting daily activities for citizens. Recommending the conduct of extensive services in places with the capacity to hold over 1,000–5,000 people, including car park spaces, instead of in smaller capacity spaces. That is, crowd, traffic, and sound/noise control should be prioritized and fully maintained. The conduct of soul-winning by Churches would be advised to be done digitally and online on digital billboards, social media, online media (YouTube, etc.), and billboards by the religious spaces. Thereby discouraging printed flyers, door-step, car-truck good evangelism, and face-to-face (outreach) on the roads to reduce inter-religious conflicts. Smoking and drinking would not be allowed in Public but only in designated areas for smoking and drinking as allocated by the Government. Therefore, there would be designated areas for smoking or drinking with signages provided by the Government. Also, private clubs and lounges (*to be directed appropriately on the type/size/format of signage design via website).
Religion in Offices and Schools
All Public & private entities are to make appropriate plans and provisions to provide religious prayer/fellowship spaces for all religions registered in Nigeria. Prayer times/Fellowship would become recognized in workspaces and schools. That is, all institutions would duly respect the service/prayer periods for all religions registered in Nigeria during regular working/school hours in all sectors. Also, make necessary arrangements to ensure no citizen’s right/freedom of religion is infringed due to work/school pressure. Note: these prayer periods should not be added to any citizen’s break time/refreshment time/work free time.
Cultural Day in Offices and Schools
There should be a standard Cultural day in Offices and Schools. All workers (Public & private sectors) and students in schools across the nation should be encouraged to dress in other cultures’ traditional attire. The cultural day won’t be a work-free day but a national celebration. Traditional foods would be a feature of the festivities. National cuisine would be encouraged to be consumed for that day, promoting local dishes amongst citizens and tourists. Traditional games would be played in schools and communities, where inter-class competitions are sometimes organized. Some art & cultural installations would be in the nation. Further, promoting cultural attires in the public sector (government MDAs) would be encouraged. Additionally, lifting all existing laws embedded in the code of conduct of MDAs to not wear traditional attires except for all government uniform establishments (military or paramilitary).
Harmony Games
The event is an annual tribal/ethnic community effort to strengthen ties among Nigerians of different ethnic communities to get together and celebrate diversity. Therefore, the Harmony Games would be a National sporting and cultural competition between states.
Tenure & Style of Governance
There is a great need to review the total tenure of governance of Nigeria’s three arms of Government, namely the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches. Currently, the total number of years for everyone elected into the 3 components of Government is 8 years (or even likely more for those in the Legislative and Judicial branches). As recommended, the total tenure for the 3 arms of Government, Ministerial positions, Public Sector Institutions (MDAs), Military/Paramilitary, and other security bodies should be reviewed and reduced to five (5) years of tenure. That is, “one person can only occupy a top seat for 5 years of governance/leadership, either by the selection, election, nomination, appointment or even representation”. Further, this is due to the country’s increasing population, maintaining strict adherence to the National Development Plan, curtailing political instability, introducing a rotational presidency, and other national interest reasons. The introduction of a rotational presidency & other political appointments would bridge the gaps of ethnic and religious disintegration in the country to a bare minimum. That is, “every election carried out every 5 years must produce a candidate from one particular geopolitical zone (the six geopolitical zones in Nigeria are: North-Central, North-East, North-West, South-South, South-East, and South-West) for the positions of the President, Vice-President, Senate President, and other top political positions”. Considering the geopolitical zone and religion to be represented by empowering the Federal Character Commission to work with INEC, National/Federal Ethnic-Religious bodies & NIMC to ensure full compliance. This would be achievable under a framework designed in synergy with relevant government bodies.
Meritocracy
The application of Meritocracy in Nigeria is far more critical for the future as much as possible to implement fully in the country. That is, the selection, appointment, and election of individual people based on talent, effort, merit, and achievement in power or authority, rather than wealth or social class.
National Development, Welfare & Green Plan
There is a great need for a National Development Plan with 10–30 years lifespan. This Development Plan would be prepared for the continuity and completion of all development and welfare projects of the Government, and more so cut the lapses created by some factors (such as political instability, change of Government, and others — red tape, etc.). This plan would be adopted by all levels of Government and shall be backed by the law. No government can either move away or manipulate it due to political ambitions. Every project carried out during administration would be commissioned and named accordingly. Every public utility-related project must include a plan for future maintenance and design blueprints. The commissioning of all road, bridge, water, and electricity projects would be abolished and only opened upon completion to reduce project commissioning costs. Project commissioning costs for large-scale infrastructural & tourism projects would be budgeted and included in the project cost except if sourced from the private sector through PPP. Public-Private Partnerships would be considered and encouraged in the NDP. All Development Projects would be targeted toward revenue generation, budget funding, debt servicing, and investment for the country. There would also be a Welfare Plan for the nation which involves all Agricultural, Educational, Health, Security, Financial, and Identity Management sectors & stakeholders in the country. Where there would be plans for the national identity data farm and management (National Identity), security (internal & external), food production, health insurance & tourism, finance (fin-tech & other financial-related systems), literacy, sports, and poverty alleviation. Further, there is a great need to make Nigeria a green nation (that is, a garden city). Environmental projects (botanical & horticultural — Gardens, parks, and public spaces) would also be included as Green Building Masterplans for publicly and privately owned buildings.
National Service
The main goal of the national service in Nigeria (NYSC) is to nurture citizenship, nation-building, and contributory efforts to the country’s development, which has yet to be fully achieved in Nigeria. Therefore, there is a great need to engage the NYSC in government/national services such as uniformed services [military & paramilitary agencies: The Nigerian Police Force (NPF), Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC), Federal Fire Service (FFS) and Peace Corps]; Federal Roads Safety, Traffic Control & Lights Management; Horticulture (tree/flower planting); arts (art installations); data management (population & identity); elections, transportation (rail/road/water) and other services connected to public utilities and infrastructure. Further, unequal opportunity in posting NYSC Corp members to states and offices has been a driver for ethnic-religious disintegration over the years. For example, posting by state, redeployment, and posting by Place of Primary Assignment (PPA) has been influenced by ethnic group, religion, family influence, social status, wealth, and hand-to-hand bribery. The NYSC would need to first register or identify all Public & private entities with the available national service placements per service period to ensure adequate and appropriate posting for all members. After the registration & identification process, there would be a system or platform which receives the data of a person and posts by qualification/merit, skillset, physical attributes, dream job/aspirations/passion/hobby, talents, achievements, and others but not by the location of the school, state of origin or place of residence. The NYSC would upgrade its websites to collect the data & options to offer non-bias posting to every applicant per service period to a particular state and also placing each applicant directly to the Place of Primary assignment (PPA) without the applicant lobbying or applying personally to those PPAs. This would also aid proper data management for the NYSC, cut red tape, fully digitalize their operations, offer non-bias posting, foster skill acquisition & development, engage NYSC in maintaining government services & public utilities, aid the country’s goal of meritocracy and promote direct/indirect employment in the country.
Equal before the law
In Nigeria, every citizen needs to be equal before the law. That is, the communities/citizens would have to trust the Government to apply the rules and regulations fairly to all. If a person crosses the line, he or she will be dealt with, regardless of his or her ethnic group, religion, position, wealth, or social class. There is a need for new ethnic and religious laws prosecuting anyone who utters offensive statements towards any ethnic-religious group and also contents created to disorientate people or a community on ethnic or religious matters. The sanctions could either be the payment of fines or a short jail term.
Equal Opportunity
Unequal opportunity in offices and schools (universities) has been another driver for ethnic-religious disintegration. That is, for example, recruitment by either ethnic group or religion and also university admission either by ethnic group or religion in public universities especially. To counter these issues, there would be new labor laws and education laws, which would be recognized by all public and private identities in the country. The labor laws include that there must be an equal distribution of jobs and other forms of employment during any recruitment exercise. That is, for example, if 30 applicants apply for a job, every applicant should be selected accordingly either by merit or recruitment exercise (test/exam/interview) and after the recruitment exercise, Officers of the Federal Character Commission and any other establishment (Education/Identity Management related) would be present to conduct the exercise to ensure full compliance. In the case where Foreigners also apply for jobs, citizens present in the country should be considered, except in a case where the expertise/skillset of the Foreigner is worthy of being recruited by outstanding merit. The Education laws include that there must be an equal distribution of admissions into schools. That is, for example, if 30 applicants applied for school admission; every applicant should be selected accordingly either by merit/scholarship or admission exercise (test/exam/interview). After the admission exercise, Officers of the Ministry of Education and any other Education establishment would be present to conduct the training to ensure full compliance. This would address the ethnic-religious segregation in offices, schools, market spaces, and others. Every Nigerian, regardless of ethnic group or religion, must be given equal opportunity. There would only be room for special privileges in some sectors of the country.
Human Rights
There is a great need to review any contrary government policy prohibiting any human rights law in Nigeria. Therefore, the Government needs to enforce all relevant human rights laws and orientate citizens on the Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Religion, Freedom of Press & Media, Freedom of Information, and Freedom of the use of Social Media through the National Orientation Agency and the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture.
Border/Boundary
There should be proper identification and marking of all existing borders in the nation. Adequate security and construction of border walls (where needed) should be carried out to control what comes in and out of the country. All records of past and existing ethnic conflicts between communities/tribes in the country should be identified and settled amicably out of court and guided by government laws of non-conflict.
Unity adds to productivity and dramatically improves safety (the security of lives and properties). Note that unity with various tribes makes a nation more immune to failure. We are all there for one another to give courage, strength, and confidence in our human efforts, belief system, innovations, and available resources. Consider how much having only one hand hinders productivity. When both hands are open, much more can be accomplished, and every economic activity is more accessible.
Firstly, we need to be of one mind; like-mindedness involves an agreement in natural and spiritual values that significantly impact the same direction. It’s natural to strike back when treated unjustly, focus on anger, rage against injustice, and find ways to overcome the cause. But we need to live a different kind of life. Instead of exploding or reacting, focus our energy on unity and a better environment for every citizen. One mind also means cooperation in the midst of diversity, we may disagree on how things are to be done but agree on what is to be done.
Secondly, let us have compassion for one another and regard each other’s welfare. That is a nation full of unity, love, empathy, peace, tranquility, harmony, oneness, law and order, and progress. Thereby promoting foreign investment, trade, and domestic and international tourism.
Thirdly, to love one another deeply, bear one another’s burdens, forgive our past mistakes and decisions, and honor one another above personal ambitions. We must live a life that will positively influence our children (Who are the nation’s future). Children learn by observing and imitating their parents, teachers, books & reading materials, and schools. So, the way we treat one another will have a profound influence on our children of the future. This would foster unity, continuity, and much more.
References: “Ethnicity in Nigeria”. PBS. 5 April 2007. Retrieved 9 May 2015. “Nigeria”. Ethnologue. Retrieved 4 July 2019. “Linguistic diversity in Africa and Europe — Languages Of The World”. 16 June 2011. Archived from the original on 15 September 2017. Retrieved 4 July 2019. “NIGERIA — CIA WORLD FACTBOOK 2019” (PDF). Mann, Charles C. (1990). “Choosing an Indigenous Official Language for Nigeria” (PDF). “The countries with the 10 largest Christian populations and the 10 largest Muslim populations”. Pew Research Center. Retrieved 25 May 2020.
