Ethnicity and Culture do Matter

The intellectual occupies an important role in society. He/she asks difficult, probing
questions, challenges dominant modes of thinking and offers an alternative vision of the
future. The intellectual must be firmly grounded in reality, not in a make believe world of
political correctness. The intellectual should not seek to offend, but should be fully
prepared to pay the price for original thought: offending fickle, narrow minds.
Instead of the intellectual ferment that characterized the late Colonial Era and the period
immediately after Independence, my generation has regressed to embrace the banal. A
certain politically correct groupthink is dominant. It asks no deep questions and seeks no
deep answers. It is content with half-baked hyper-capitalist supermarket tabloid success
philosophy in lieu of critical original thought.
The issue of ethnicity and culture is an intellectual blind spot (that is if the moniker
intellectual can be applied to the practitioners of uniquely Nigerian form of escapist middle
class groupthink). But this is an issue that I think merits a discussion, because this
generation cannot afford not to deal comprehensively with this issue.
One often hears the clich, I am a de-tribalized Nigerian. It is meaningless, tepid, politically
correct nonsense. I am Igbo, and we all have ethnic and/or cultural backgrounds. Nigerian
culture (if such a thing exists), is so lacking in positive values, artefacts and markers that it
can be said to either non-existent or (if it exists), not worthy of emulation.
I am Igbo. Being Igbo means I have an umunna in my ancestral village. It also means
onye kwe, chi ya ekwe (if a man makes up his mind, his chi supports him), informs my
world view. It is a core part of my identity and must not be seen as a negative influence on
my life.
The same applies to people from other ethnic backgrounds. Some view Sharia as being
central to their world view and come from cultures with a thousand year contact with Islam.
Even those middle class Lagos people who look down on the rest of us, are heavily
influenced by Lagos culture which is heavily influenced by Yoruba culture.
Nigeria will never be like the United States of America, with its unique approach to diversity
and the dominance of a White Anglo-Saxon Culture (which originated from the work ethic of
New England Puritans). While the United States of America is an idea, Nigeria is at best, a
historical accident. Nigeria is an artificial construct, overlaying hundreds of ancient cultures
and civilizations. Ethnic cultures are embodied in traditional rulers and institutions. Any
understanding of the challenges of Nigerias diversity must go beyond the usual why cant
Nigeria be like America where ethnicity and religion do not matter?
To get to grips with Nigerias challenge with ethnic and cultural diversity, one should move
northwards from America to Canada. Canada was a nation founded with linguistic and
cultural diversity. There were Anglo-Canadians and French-Canadians at the outset and
there was no equivalent of I am a de-tribalized Canadian with its attendant mental
escapism. An acknowledgement of linguistic and cultural differences did not prevent Canada
from building a just and equitable society. In fact, it prepared Canada for the influx of a new
wave of immigrants from the 1950s. Canada is a model in diversity, and it prides itself as
such.
Ethnicity and culture are linked. Differences in ethnicity and culture mean we see the world
differently. Cultures deal differently with fatalism, individual success, entrepreneurship,
authority, consensus building etc. Some cultures are sedentary, others are nomadic. Some

cultures have responded well to modernization, others have deep, fundamental problems
with the 21st Century and modernization.
There can be no one size fits all. There is NO Nigerian culture, there are MANY Nigerian
cultures. This diversity means there should be different approaches to governance, not a
uniform approach to governance in a nation so obviously complex.
1960s era Pan-Africanists are largely to blame for us seeing any discussion of ethnicity or
tribe as retrogressive, not the sort of activity intellectuals should engage in. In doing so,
weve denied ourselves the opportunity to have a frank, honest debate about ethnicity and
have ceded the ground to ethnic chauvinists.
Ethnicity and culture do matter. Ethnic cultures that have developed over thousands of years
will not disappear simply because some absent minded European drew lines on the sand,
created a colony in the enclosed space and the colony eventually became an independent
African state. Even European states like Germany and Poland are built on a common
ethnicity and cultural institutions (in Poland, the Slavic Polish People & the Catholic Church).
We need to see Nigeria as it is, not an idealization. Nigeria is a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural
nation, and such nations are extremely difficult to govern.