TheCable

It’s no longer news that the country is hanging on a precipice. The number of hate speeches on the media and social media space calls for serious concern.

I don’t think I have seen so much hate for one region or tribe like now on social media. At the rate at which we are going, genocide may soon be a reality.

How did we get here? Many questions but few answers. Right now in Nigeria, the most dangerous tribe or region to come from is to be a northerner. Once you join any conversation or comment on any topic on social media and you tell them you are a northerner, you get all sorts of diatribes, invectives and hate poured on you.

You are labelled the problem of the country since independence, you are a Fulani herdsman, a killer. You caused the civil war, you caused all the crisis since Lord Lugard came to Nigeria. If not for the northerner, Nigeria would have been on the same level as Dubai and Singapore. The list is endless. In fact, there is this general misconception that as long as you are a northerner, anything you achieve is because of the quota system. How dare you talk in the midst of intellectuals? Northerners are not qualified for any position. Remember you got to the top because of nepotism. Sad.

Pointedly, in my years in school, I met northern students that were brilliant and dull, same with southerners. I don’t think there is any tribe in Nigeria that doesn’t have brilliant, dull, good, evil, and kind people.

Similarly, we have bad leaders in all the regions in the country who are under developing and shortchanging their people. Federal character is reflected in bad governance.

All of a sudden, all the criminals and kidnappers from other tribes have retired from the business and are now born again. The only tribe and region kidnapping and stealing is Fulani.

No doubt, the Fulani tribe has been fingered in kidnappings and banditry of late, but that does not mean people will tar a whole region with the same brush because of the crimes of some few miscreants. It is instructive to note the north has over 200 tribes.

I insist that crime should be treated on an individual basis and not tribe.

How did Nigerians come to hate each other so much? First, I will lay the blame sorely on the feet of politicians who use ethnicity and religion to divide Nigerians. When it comes to sharing our common patrimony, the politicians are united by one common unbiblical cord.

I have said it repeatedly that there are two tribes in Nigeria – rich and poor. The rich don’t argue on the basis of ethnicity and religion, only interests.

The political elites are happy when the masses are not united and fight over mundane issues.

Come to think of it, how does President Muhammadu Buhari being a northerner and president affects the mai suya or tea seller on the road? Is his life better because a northerner is in power? Just because the Vice-President is a Yoruba man or Babatunde Fashola is the super minister, how does it change the life of a Yoruba Danfo driver in Ajegunle or Surulere? These are the real issues.

Once the masses become united and know that insecurity and economic crisis affect us all, the country will become better. The citizens need to unite against bad governance, criminals, bandits, insurgents, and kidnappers. Good governance is a basic minimum to expect from leaders at all levels. Nigerians should learn to stop lionising mediocrity at all levels.

There is a need to stop all the hate against one region or tribe on social media before we go the Rwanda way. All it takes now is a little spark to trigger a genocide and we must do all within our powers to avoid that.

Jonathan Nda-Isaiah, political director at LEADERSHIP Newspapers, can be reached via 08061573299, 08054518774.