Onyekakeyah: How disunity is nurtured in Nigeria
TUESDAY, 04 OCTOBER 2011 00:00 BY LUKE ONYEKAKEYAH OPINION - COLUMNISTS
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THE last couple of weeks have witnessed wide public condemnations of the sacking of “non-indigenes” from the Abia State’s public service by Governor Theodore Orji’s government, who happened to be Igbos. The development is not new. Many other states have done the same at one time or the other overtly or covertly. Enugu, Plateau, Rivers and Sokoto, among other states, have openly expelled “non-indigenes” from their employment in the past. Many other states are doing it unannounced. The country has in principle been split along state lines. Even what used to constitute large ethnic blocs have been neutralised by this negative tendency.

That’s why, today, no one gets a job in government establishment outside his or her state of origin. Even states that lack manpower find it difficult to hire “non-indigenes”. They prefer the positions to remain vacant, thereby compounding the unemployment situation. That’s why many schools across the country, particularly, in the north are understaffed. Abia State is just toeing the steps and doing what other states have done. You can call it reprisal or revenge. Whatever it is, it has helped to deepen the festering sense of division and disunity in the country.

There’s no law in the country which stipulates that Nigerians in public sector employment outside their states must be re-absorbed in their state public service as insinuated by Governor Orji. Usually, anyone who wishes to transfer his or her service to another state does so voluntarily and not by compulsion. After all, there’s no guarantee that the recipient states would be obliged to re-absorb those dislodged elsewhere. Even if they do, it is a rigorous process that takes a very long time during which, those affected would remain unemployed.

Unfortunately, each governor claims that the resources of the state are strictly meant to cater for the state “indigenes” and no one else. That’s the extent Nigeria has inadvertently succeeded in dividing itself. The seed of disunity has been planted and is being watered on daily basis by the country’s leaders that swore to uphold the unity of the country. The same leaders deceptively afford themselves at every occasion to proclaim national unity as if they mean what they’re saying.

In the case of Abia, it’s advisable that the lecturers in tertiary institutions who were excluded by Governor Orji’s mass sack should not rest on the oars of the state government anymore, because it’s no longer reliable. They might as well begin to seek alternative employment in their home states where their services would be appreciated and rewarded in the long run. Experience shows that henceforth, they would most likely be treated as second-rate citizens and denied promotions and appointments as heads of department. Governor Orji is retaining them to suit his own purpose. For, if tomorrow there’re Abians who could replace them, they would be booted out without hesitation. That’s the truth of the matter.

There’re few states in the country today that still retain “non-indigenes” in their employment. Where such is the case, those states retained them in their own interest and not in the interest of the “non-indigenes”. However, those retained have little or no say in their place of work. Quite often, they’re engaged on contract basis. They’re humiliated and denied promotion and other fringe benefits because they’re not from the state.

They can’t complain without being reminded by the “indigenes” that they were visitors who should return to their states if they were dissatisfied. In Abia State, for instance, the slogan is “Abia is for Abians”. “The Governor is elected to govern Abians and not every Nigerian”! In such a situation, “non-indigenes” simply hang on, passing through psychological trauma, in the face of crushing unemployment situation in the country.

I strongly believe that there’s a subtle move by practically all the state governments to root out “non-indigenes” in their midst. It’s already being implemented systematically across the states. The days when Nigerians could go anywhere in the country to look for employment are over. The private sector now represents the only true face of Nigeria, employing Nigerians irrespective of where they come from.

There’s no other way to prove that disunity has been elevated to state policy than the fact that one can’t get employment in the public service outside his state of origin. The leadership at all levels is to blame for this turn of events. This has dealt a deadly blow on the foundation upon which Nigeria was founded. Ironically, while the leaders are sowing the seed of disunity on one hand, they’re at the same time singing “One Nigeria” on the other hand.

The seed of disunity is nurtured not only in sacking “non-indigenes” from public service employment across the states but also in institutions of learning. Since September when various schools started releasing their admission list, I have taken a closer look at the distribution of admissions into some of the schools.

Starting with the universities and other tertiary institutions that are owned by the Federal Government, it’s official government policy that such schools across the country should give the bulk of their admissions to indigenes through what is popularly known as catchment area tag. By catchment area is meant that schools in the east virtually belong to easterners; schools in the west belong to westerners and schools in the north belong to northerners.

By this discriminatory policy, Nigerian youths, who are the leaders of tomorrow, are not allowed to go outside their immediate geographical region for schooling. They’re restricted to their immediate enclave. The youths are brainwashed to appreciate only things from their home region and or zone while discrediting anything from other parts of the country. Nigerian youths are therefore indoctrinated from childhood not to see themselves as one. They’re not even made to wear the Nigerian identity but ethnic toga.

By this divisive prescription, candidates from the east are virtually edged out from admission in western and northern schools, except on merit basis. The merit score represents the highest score in entrance examinations, which is difficult to make. The disadvantaged candidates from outside the catchment areas of the various institutions are expected to score the highest marks before they could be admitted in schools; whereas, their counterparts from the catchment area are admitted even with failure scores.

It’s on the basis of this official policy of discrimination that over 80 per cent of students at the Universities of Lagos and Ibadan are of Yoruba extraction.The same goes for the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, which is populated by Ibos. Similarly, the universities in the north like the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), University of Maiduguri and Usman dan Fodio University, Sokoto are filled with Hausas, Fulani and other indigenes of northern extraction.

The same divisive policy is applied even in the so-called Federal Unity Schools. My investigation in some of the federal Unity Schools shows that the last thing in those schools is unity. Looking at the admission list of candidates into the Junior Secondary School (JSS1), I noticed that over 80 per cent of the admissions were given on the basis of what is called “environmental” consideration. This is another name for catchment area. I thought that the Unity Schools give equal representation of candidates from all the states of the federation, but this is not the case. No wonder, the Unity Schools have failed to unite Nigeria more than three decades after they were started.

It’s on these bases that I question the spirit and purpose of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) programme. The NYSC scheme was in principle established to promote national unity. Good enough. But what kind of unity are we promoting when students are not free to attend schools anywhere of their choice in the country?

Why should an Igbo youth who was denied admission at the University of Ibadan or ABU, Zaria, and forced to study at the UNN be compelled to go to the same Zaria or Ibadan to do NYSC after graduation? The same applies to Yoruba and Hausa youths, who are forced to study at Ibadan and Zaria, respectively. Why should they be compelled to go to the East or West on graduation to perform a national service?

Besides, there are no prospects of career development in the states. As no state employs “non-indigenes”, the youngsters are made to return to their states of origin to look for employment. Who is fooling who? Can we see why all the talk of national unity is not achieving anything? The hypocrisy in government is to blame. The structures in place are anti unity.

If the government is sincere in promoting national unity, all these official obstacles and hindrances should be dismantled. Nigerian youths should be free to school anywhere of their choice in the country. As a matter of fact, it’s easier to achieve national unity through the younger generation. But the system must open up for them; otherwise, the empty slogan is inherently flawed.

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brilliant article

Truth be told