WHEN I survey the state of the world, I am reminded of the words of Charles Dickens when he wrote the following in A Tale of Two Cities, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”

It is the best of times for researchers, commentators, observers etc as events in all parts of the world fill the airwaves about Syria, Paris, Iraq, Mali, Maiduguri, Yola, Kenya, and the filth called Presidential campaign in the United States. So much to comment upon. But the content of the events fills me with horror. World Leaders are clueless about how to respond to challenges and fear seems to rule the world. It is indeed the worst of times.

But today, in this our own corner, we come to celebrate. We are not just celebrating a man, we are celebrating a Nigeria that once was, with the hope of a regeneration. In 1959, a young Ijaw boy (now a venerable old man) aged 24 years left what is now Akwa Ibom, travelled to Ilorin, then Lagos, then Ibadan and then Zaria, back to Lagos and then back to Ibadan where he had stayed for the rest of his life. There was once a country (my compliments to Chinua Achebe).

That is not all. He met a Yoruba lad the late Lawrence Arokodare in 1962. They bonded, looked out for each other, worked together, established a joint company in the 60s and till today that company is still thriving as a joint venture despite the death of one of the partners. Hear what Rev Etteh has to say about his partnerships: “People who work and live with me have seen the spirit that operated in Lawrence and I, that we, when we started our journey together in life, gave no precedence to strife and discord, we were completely unaffected by tribalism or prejudice. This is one reason why I still take care of my late partner’s family; they still invite me for any events and special occasions that may arise. I care about Lawrence’s wife and his children. I don’t have a bias over anything or anyone that still belongs to him till this day. Both of us were known back in the 60s and 70s as people who accommodate all tribes, …” There was once a country.

Yes, there was once a country, where a Mazi Mbonu Ojike, an Ibo would be a Deputy Mayor of Lagos, where a Umaru Altine, a Fulani, would be a Mayor of Enugu, where an Eyo Ita, an Ibibio, would be Leader of Government in the East, where Professor Kenneth Dike, an Ibo and Professor Tekena Tamuno, an Ijaw, would be Vice-Chancellors of the University of Ibadan. In 1962, the political crisis erupted in the old Western Region when the state of emergency was declared in the region, Chief (Dr.) Majekodunmi was appointed the Administrator and a young army Captain, Murtala Mohammed, was appointed his ADC. I was in Ibadan then and saw both of them worship in Christian churches. In 1966, when Chief Obafemi Awolowo was released from prison in Calabar and flown to Lagos, it was a young Major Murtala Mohammed who volunteered to drive him to Ikenne. In 1975, when the then Brigadier-General Murtala Mohammed took over the reins of government, his ADC was Lt. Akintunde Akinsehinwa. Both of them died together in 1976. Yes, there was once a Country. What a country we once had.

The two immediate questions which I need to address are: What changed? And what is the way forward? For clarity, let me register this fact. The volume of cross-country movements or migrations is greater today than when Revd Etteh left Upenekang in what is now Akwa Ibom state. There are more cross-cultural marriages now than then. That institution of immense potentiality at birth, the National Youth Service Corps, should take credit for these cross-cultural developments. But, and this is the crucial question: Are we more integrated, more united, today than in the 50s, 60s and 70s?

The answer is a categorical no. We must resist the temptation to manufacture evidence. The evidence is all around us. We have fought a civil war, there are continuing threats of secession, there are loud cries of marginalization coming from all over the country. Or as the 2014 National Conference put it “since independence, millions of Nigerians of different tribes and faiths have lost their lives, and that children have been orphaned, women have been widowed, men, women, boys and girls have been maimed, hopes have been dashed, dreams have been shattered and properties have been destroyed, on account of conflicts brought about by the absence of genuine national integration and in total disregard of the tenets of our faith to truly love our neighbours as ourselves”. New words have crept into our political lexicon such as power rotation, our turn, quota, catchment area, federal character, etc. From the beginning of political activism in Nigeria, until 1999, roughly for a period of about 150 years, there were several federal elections involving the Founding Fathers, namely Tafawa Balewa, Obafemi Awolowo, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Shehu Shagari and not once was an election fought on the basis of “its our turn” or “power rotation” or any such abracadabra lexicon.

Yet, in 1999, the military government at that time decided to award the Presidency to the South-West on a rotation basis thereby introducing a new pernicious term into Nigerian politics. Can we get back the Lawrence and Etteh Nigeria from the post 1999 malaise? Of course, politicians will be politicians and will use anything to sell themselves. But there is hope out there if only we look out for it.

But I have not addressed the issue of how did we get from the Nigeria of Lawrence and Etteh to where we are now, although you might have guessed. Politics dragged us there. Drawing from Etteh’s memoirs, you can tell when the rain started falling on our heads. He remembered when in the 1960s, his friend, Lawrence, got the company where he worked, Ove Arup & Partners (OAP), to invite Etteh to Ibadan to take a job only for some people to castigate Lawrence for not recommending a Yoruba man for the job. The date of the incident is instructive. 1963/64 was right in the midst of the political crisis created in the Western Region after the declaration of the State of Emergency in the West by the Federal Government. The Yoruba of the West were feeling very much under siege. Of course Nigerian history then became an apt illustration of the Swahili proverb which says “you don’t need to teach anyone how to fall into a ditch. Just take the first off the edge and other steps will follow”. Nigeria descended into insurrection in the West, two coup d’états, and a civil war. From then on, Nigerian politics became deeply rooted in ethnic-driven sentiments.

If truth be told, appointments at the federal level became a battleground between the East and the West as merit was thrown overboard. People now got the impression that what you got at the Federal level depended on the ethnic colouration of the Minister and Permanent Secretary. In other words, the descent of politics into ethnic quagmire was accompanied by a bureaucratic descent into ethnic quagmire and a descent in all spheres of human endeavor in Nigeria into ethnic quagmire.

What is the way forward?
Firstly, Nigeria is a complex country to manage. It is not a simple state. It is a State of nationalities, many nationalities. Some have suggested that we have about 360 nationalities. Others have suggested 450 nationalities – typical Nigerian hyperbole. Every village is now being called a nationality. Managing such a complex enterprise is going to call for compromises and an understanding that mistakes will be made and that when mistakes are made, they should be addressed. And it is important to begin from a historical perspective.

That Nigeria is a multi-ethnic state is a fact that cannot be denied. But admitting one’s ethnic identity is one thing, while asserting that identity to the detriment of other ethnic identities is the problem. In other words, assertion of an ethnic identity is ethnicity and is acceptable. But a behaviour based on an assertion of one’s identity as if that is the only identity in a multi-ethnic state is ethnicism and unacceptable. I must emphasize from the beginning that the fact that Nigeria is a multi-ethnic state is not unique to Nigeria or unique to Africa. It is not a negative phenomenon.

The next issue to confront is what is often characterized as the artificial creation of Nigeria. This is in reference to the 1915 amalgamation of Nigeria by Lord Lugard. The artificiality of Nigerian boundaries is not a Nigerian phenomenon. While admitting that Nigeria is a multi-ethnic state and that its boundaries are artificial, that should not pose existential threats to Nigeria. I am not saying that they could not because obviously, they can and have posed existential threats in Nigeria and in other places in the past. But it is like fire. It can cook, and it can burn.

This then leads me to ask a pertinent question: Should Nigeria have the free for all political system which we operate? During the First Republic, we had three major political parties: the NPC from the North, the NCNC from both the East and the West even though in public perception, it was regarded as an Eastern party and the Action Group was from the West. All the other parties were just ancillary parties. During the second Republic, the pattern was repeated. The NPN was basically a Northern party, the NPP was basically an Eastern party, and the UPN was basically a Western party. All the other parties were again ancillary parties.

The putative Third Republic was the only exception. The military regime decreed a two-party system. There was no Northern party, no Eastern party and no Western party. All of us had to find room in one party or the other rather than to keep setting up ethnic parties.

The main issue which confronts ethnicity in the electoral conundrum in Africa is how to build an inclusive electoral system which turns the ethnic kaleidoscope into a positive factor. Even though we tend to slide into the “one man one vote” mantra when we think democracy, the practice of democracy worldwide is not based on one man one vote. Countries that practice the Presidential system come closest to the “one man one vote” paradigm. But those countries which practice a joint Presidential/parliamentary system, a straight parliamentary system and proportional representation are very far from the “one man one vote” mantra but close to the Lincolnian definition of democracy as “government of the people, by the people and for the people”. The critical factor is the definition of the people. A system that recognizes the plurality of the constituents of the population, be that plurality, be one of gender, religion, ethnic or any other come fairly close to the essence of democracy. It is the failure of the African political system to fully interrogate the ethnic conundrum that still constitutes the major stumbling block to nation-building

The biggest disservice done to Nigerian unity was the abolition of the two-party system in the 1999 constitution. I know that there are those especially from the Human Rights community who argue that there should be freedom of choice in forming as many political parties as there are married couples. Given Nigerian penchant for ego tripping, I consider this to be a recipe for anarchy.

Being a multi-ethnic nation calls for the acceptance of certain imperatives. Firstly, it was and it is important to give every grouping of nations the feeling of belonging. Those who started earlier on the steps of the ladder have to accept that supersession would have to take place. That is the sacrifice they have to make for the sake of nation-building. But those who are implementing the exercise of supersession and those who are beneficiaries of the supersession need to show an understanding that those superseded hurt and needed to be respected. Those understanding and respect have been missing. And that is why in the Charter for National Reconciliation and Integration adopted by the 2014 National Conference, states that the cumulative effects of all of these is “resentment, nurtured bitterness and sustained distrust among Nigerians against one another.”

Being a multi-ethnic nation calls for a deliberate policy of even dispersal of economic development. What often fuels disharmony in a nation is the competition for jobs. Even in uni-ethnic countries, scarcity of jobs could lead to massive unemployment and corruption. In multi-ethnic states such as Nigeria, favouritism along ethnic grounds accompanies the corruption. The economic dispersal may not make economic sense but it is a desideratum for national integration.

Finally, I must draw attention to the need to show group mutual respect in a multi-ethnic environment. You may also call it reciprocity or reciprocal hospitality. Within a religious environment, the golden rule is do unto others as you wish they should do unto you. In diplomacy the concept of sovereignty manifests itself through the principle of reciprocity. If your group is welcomed in other parts, you are under an obligation to welcome other groups into your zone. If your people have flourishing businesses in other parts, you are under an obligation to be welcoming to others. The Lagos State government, appointed into its cabinet as a Commissioner, someone from the South-East zone for sixteen years. This gesture was never reciprocated for a day by any of the five governments in the South-East zone. This is not a recipe for national integration.

Rev Etteh’s philosophy of life he articulated as such when he said “People who work and live with me have seen the spirit that operated in Lawrence and I, that we, when we started our journey together in life, gave no precedence to strife and discord, we were completely unaffected by tribalism or prejudice…” It has the resonance of the soaring Lincolnian exhortation :“ With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”

• Professor Bolaji Akinyemi is a former Minister for Foreign Affairs