The scale of Dr and Mrs Ekweremadu son’s wedding in Abuja, may be perfectly acceptable in Igbo culture. But it is totally unacceptable in Yoruba culture. At least four of Chief M.K.O. Abiola’s children held down their weddings because their father was in detention. This should ordinarily be one more proof of why no Nigerian tribe should attempt to dictate or lord its views, thoughts or ways on another, no matter the size of their population in the land of peoples of another culture.
That we can see that our cultures and ethos are not just different in look or name, but also disparate in substance, should be nationally instructive. Nobody should try to preach their ways or force their thoughts and choices on others in a federation that wants peace, progress and development.
I have for example seen Igbos “celebrate the life” of a person who died at less than 32 years in age. It is somewhat acceptable in their culture as guided by their worldview. But, whereas it is not necessarily condemnable because it can be justified by the Igbo worldview, it is not acceptable at all among Yorubas, as guided too by the worldview of the Yorubas.
The practice of true federalism is in effect the best way to peacefully run a multi-ethnic and multicultural society like the Nigerian society. There are no people of a tribe called “Nigerian”, that will develop the country called Nigeria. Therefore, there cannot be a great Nigeria until all the federating peoples of Nigeria are made to feel responsible for the development of their own parts of the country. It is the development of Nigeria in parts that will invariably berth a developed Nigeria. Incidentally, that is the foundation of the peace and advancement of virtually every great nation of different peoples on earth.
You have the English, the Scottish, the Irish and the Welsh all running their own nations in the United Kingdom. But everyone is working to create Great Britain. The economic renaissance we now so seriously desire in Nigeria, even makes it compelling that we go back to the practice of true federalism, away from the warped federalism we are practicing, holding everybody down as individuals and distracting the nation as a whole.
Nigeria is best run as a federation of almost autonomous peoples, largely developing in directions they have chosen and at their own paces, dictating their politics and their goals, with nobody or any people of a different culture, dictating or being seen to be dictating changes, trying to force their thought or ways in what amounts to breathing down on or even trying to choke others. This is not tribalism. It is merely trying to bear one’s father’s name and not another person’s father’s name.
Incidentally too, it is the best way to forge the quickest response to national call of duty for economic development when every Nigerian region is put on the steering for the development of its part of the country. If they need experts, they will engage experts on their own terms too. They will dictate the type of investments they desire in their parts and choose the lifestyles whose bloom they prefer bloom in their parts. That is the foundation of a healthy country where all shall live in peace.
