Parable of unequal fingers and Nigeria’s nationhood

BY JIDE AJANI
The thumb, index finger, middle finger, ring finger and the little finger sometimes referred to as pinkie) are the ethnic nationalities of the hand.

They are five. Nigeria  has about 250 ethnic nationalities. Now, put up your two hands – with the palms facing you. Cause the fingers to twitch in unequal and uneven manner. As you do that, observe the swiftness of the index finger and the middle finger.

Also observe the gentle, subtle and not so co-ordinated movement of the pinkie and the thumb. Put your hands up again because in the process of moving the fingers they had been subconsciously lowered.

Cause the fingers to stay straight together and the inequality of the fingers becomes more manifest.  However, these same unequal fingers worked together for Hogan Kid Bassey, the former World Boxing Champion of Nigerian extraction.

The same unequal fingers were used by Roger Federer, the best tennis player of all times, to win 16 grand slam titles, surpassing Pete Sampras’ 15 – and he’s still playing; the hands are used by pilots to fly planes; used by doctors to carry out life-saving operations; used by teachers to make leaders of men and women.

These five fingers of the hand, unequal as they are in size and shape, work together to lift, carry, swing, punch, slap, scratch and sooth in  unison on behalf of either the left hand or the right hand.

Agitators for self determinationFingers are not equal. That is the way some agitators for self-determination in Nigeria have been going about their argument for the actualisation of their agenda. This is not limited to the southern part of the country. 

Some ethnic nationalities in the North too, speak the same language of unequal fingers. That argument may be plausible if the context is not stretched beyond the vexed issue of the amalgamation of the Southern and Northern protectorates by Lord Lugard.

To be fair, this was a marriage that  was not meant to serve the interest of both the North and the South in the beginning.  But historical facts and fresh records point to the fact that whereas the civil servants in the Colonial Office frowned at this, Lugard dismissed their objection in a very whimsical manner because his own agenda was for British economic interests.

Whereas BUSINESS, the Ultimate Resource, defines amalgamation as “the process of two or more organisations joining together for mutual benefit either through a merger or consolidation”, Nigeria’s case was not engaged in the pursuit of mutual benefits.

Two years hence, Nigeria would be 100 years, post amalgamation, but talk of unequal fingers persists.

Nigeria, with over 250 ethnic nationalities, is the most populous black nation on earth with about 165 million people.

Its level of nationhood or development does not in any way reflect the benefit of that massive number largely because some people have come to abuse the term “fingers are not equal”. And this leads us to the issue of management of men and resources!

How do the fingers conduct   one another in such a manner that they work together for the good of the hand? It is about the collective. When the class of Nigerians referred to as elite is involved in a process which translates to personal benefit or aggrandizement, it works together.

Not minding their ethno-religious and political background, this class work together like the unequal fingers of the same hand.

But when  discord sets in, and each has to go his way, they simply recoil into that self-same ethno-religious and political cocoon, deceive the masses and whip up sentiments that are  divisive and diabolic.

The president, state governors, senators and members of the House of Representatives, as well as ministers and special advisers emerge from this class of Nigerians.  Simply put, this group of Nigerians produces those in leadership positions.

This should explain why the single most destructive natural disaster confronting Nigerians today is leadership. Leadership, in the Nigerian context, is a force; and it is natural.

From independence to date, it has been the single most destructive element.  It should buoy development.  It should give fillip.  But here, it is a disaster.

Analogue and digital terms

Mind you, other developed nations of the world, some even less developed than Nigeria at independence in 1960, have since sped past this vast, blessed, land into the realm of the supersonic because they have a consistent regime of good leadership.  Were development to be categorised in analogue and digital terms, the overwhelming verdict would be that Nigeria still runs on analogue; 52 years after independence and 98 years since amalgamation.

Today, the Jamaatu Ahlil Sunna Lidawati wal Jihad, otherwise known as Boko Haram, is attempting to impose its own version of Islam on Nigeria and is pursuing its agenda with violence – an off-shoot of some interests that believe that fingers are not equal; the Ogonis are talking about self determination; between the Tivs and Junkuns, there is no love lost; within the Niger Delta, some groups seek to dominate the others. This has led some to insist that self determination would merely foist another regime of over lordship in the new enclaves.

The fingers may not be equal, but they work together. Nigeria may have ethnic nationalities with different orientations,idiosyncrasies, characteristics,mentalities, and the likes but working together would make Nigeria great if honesty of purpose and sincerity of intentions are the orders of the day.

But Nigerian leaders are quick to exploit the differences for personal gains. When it is convenient, leaders remember that fingers are not equal. God Almighty never intended fingers to be equal, but working together, a nation can achieve greatness.