By: Pastor Suleiman, Joseph Manjoe
The plethora of geographical entities in different sizes, all over the world, isthe contrivance of divine wisdom. God is the master-architect. In building thisworld He reckoned with diverse sizes. He fashioned the big nations and the smallnations. He designed the big tribes and the small tribes. Virtually all thingsare in sundry sizes: big men, small men, big rivers, small rivers, big trees,small trees. The sum total of all these is a universe with compelling appeal.
Itfollows therefore, that any attempt by man in his own inventions to ascribemonopoly to big sizes is a curious and deliberate confrontation with divinearrangement. Characteristically, man has continually challenged the divinewisdom by suggesting and effecting his own devices. God juxtaposed minoritieswith majorities to make the world thick, but man with prejudices sought totwist this arrangement by ascribing to the minorities inferiority tag.
Firstly,let us see who a minority is. Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary definesminority as "a small group within a community or country that is differentbecause of race, religion, language." Dr. Amos Olagboye, in his book: 'Kogi:Is this the dream State?" sees an ethnic minority as "A social clusterof a perceived common stock, the members of which share common objective attributesand identity different from the rest of the population to which they arehowever, numerically inferior within a given geo-political entity". ProfessorTam David-West in his 'Philosophical Essays' likened theminority complex to the 'underdog-complex'. It is the undergo complex syndromethat has raised very serious issues around the people who,, by reason of theirsmall size in nation states, have been subjected to relative deprivations interms of appointments and the vexed question of power balancing.
Nigeriatypifies a nation with very intricate dealings about minorities. Nigeria hasover 300 tribal groups. Of these, the most prominent, by reason of populousnessand geographical expanse are the Hausa, the Igbo and the Yoruba. The fate ofNigeria has, and is always being decided by these main tribes. Historicalantecedents in this country show that there had been complex power play amongthese three major ethnic groups. The bitter 30-month civil war in this countrywas the result of the cry by Igbos of marginalization by a supposedHausa-dominated federal government.
The plurality of our nation in terms of ethnic configuration is a feature of a modernsociety and a product of divine order. Neither the major tribes nor the minorities made themselves who they are as to prompt boasting or lamentation.The concept of unity in diversity is a constant refrain in a heterogeneouscountry aimed at assuaging fears of ethnic domination. While we chanted thisage-long refrain, in practice, we did another thing entirely. The same northernchampions of zoning today were the same element who vehemently opposed the ideaof rotational presidency being entrenched in the constitution during the defunct2005 National Political Reform Conference. While some of us (minorities)canvassed for power sharing among the six geo-political zones, they, themajority tribes opted for zoning principle in the party constitutions betweenthe north and the south. To them it is a taboo to have the zoning/rotational principle in the constitution. Their carnal calculation is if it comes to thenorth, the Hausa-Fulani will naturally overwhelm minorities in the north totake the coveted position and when it comes to the South it is either theYorubas or the Igbos. The minorities can wait for the crumbs that falls from the master's table.
Minoritiesin this country have lived in perpetual subjugation under the harassing intimidation of major tribes. While the major tribes have their way; minoritytribes only have their say. The big brothers hinge their bully tendency on thegarbled theory that democracy is a game of numbers. That is why they must viewrulership of this nation, appointments into ministries, boards and parastatals.Even, the federal character concept is often submerged in the murky waters ofnepotism – jobs and other appointments for next-of-kin and ethnic loyalists.This tendency even infiltrates areas where catchment area policy is battered tobits by the juggernauts of majority politics.
TheNiger Delta area convulsed with militancy because the people were tired ofbeing insulted just because they are minorities. What the majorities will nottolerate were wickedly given to the Ijaws, the Efiks, the Ibibios, the Urobos/Iteskiris.And we saw the resistance and the pardonable intransigence. As David-Westnoted: "It would be self-defeating if not self-destructive for majorities toshow ossified insensitivity to minority problems".
Thequestion is: if we all belong to the same country, bound together by a legaldocument under which seal is our indivisibility, who, then, has more right thanthe other in a phenomenon with shared ownership? It is astonishingly ridiculousthat we can be so blind to the tenets of our founding document because of narrow interests.
Section39(1a) of the 1999 constitution protects the right of every citizen. It says: "A citizen of Nigeria of a particular community, ethnic group, place of origin,sex, religion or political opinion shall not, by reason only that he is such aperson – (a) be subjected either expressly by, or in the practical applicationof, any law in force in Nigeria or any executive or administrative action ofthe government to disabilities or restrictions to which citizens of Nigeria ofother communities, ethnic groups, places of origin, sex, religions, orpolitical opinions are not made subject". It is therefore a justiceable matterwhen a citizen from any part of the country is subjected to any form of deprivation.The truth is that we trite with the based document that is the basis of ourcorporate existence. If Goodluck Jonathan and minorities are protected by the letter and spirit of thisdocument, then it is unpatriotic and a blatant disservice for any person orgroup to want to edge them out of their inalienable rights.
Someof us watched with dismay the submissions of the leadership of the sardauna magazine on NTA who vehemently opposed President Goodluck Jonathan contestingthe 2011 elections. It was just true-to-type. As celebrated as Ahmadu Bello isin the North, Sardauna was a one-Nigeria skeptic. Greene said of him in hisbook 'Crisisand Conflict in Nigeria': "The mistake of 1914 has come to light". Thata few of his proselytes frown at Jonathan's probable come-back in 2011 is morethan an oblique reference to ethnic supremacy and minority-phobia. Thissickness must be cured now or never. Our resolve to attack this pathologicalhatred for minorities by some misguided elements should be expressed in ourinsistence of Jonathan remaining President 2011.
Jonathanis President today and Peter Yakowa is Governor of Kaduna today only by theexigencies of the times. Normal but warped political calculations could neverhave created this opportunity for them. Reason? They are minority people! Thisis the worst of insults. Even then, providence allowed both for them to come topower to tell the big brothers that He (God) determines who comes to power, notour scheming. God values citizens from zones perceived by men to count less.The majorities use the parameters of illogicalities to denigrate them. But itwill be foolish for human to lower whom God esteem. It is also amount to insulting God for making you big when you despise the minority.
An obvious fact is that everyone is now more conscious of his right than everbefore. Racist supremacists in America know this today. Barack Obama who isfrom a racial minority is in power in the world's strongest democracy. If, according to Randal Jarrel, America's present is other people's future," then Nigeria, whose democratic ethos is crafted after America, cannot afford toignore the mood of the times.
The minorities must not only have their say they must have their way. Tocquevillein 1835 said: The nations of our time cannot prevent the conditions of man from becoming equal". If our constitution underpins this submission in it sphilosophical foundation rooted in equality and egalitarianism, then, the minorities, assisted by the zoning clamour, must see new vistas ofopportunities in Nigeria. They cannot afford to be pariahs in their owncountry.
The previous leaders of this country: Zik, Balewa, Ironsi, Murtala, Obasanjo,Shagari, Buhari, Babangida, Shonekan, Abacha, Salami and Yar'Ardua come fromthe three major ethnic groups. Jonathan is the first president from a minorityarea. He was tipped as Yar'Ardua's running mate in 2007 elections in answer tothe bold assertiveness of the Niger Deltans. The trouble the federal governmenthad in curtailing militancy in the Niger Delta area shows that the country has a daunting challenge where and when people's right are trampled upon. It is the same with kidnapping today. Until the nation extends robust promises to hercitizens, she would only be attempting to re-brand filth and she should beready for face-offs.
Jonathan,in his brief stint in office, has shown that he is larger than minorityinterests. He has ably handled the country as his constituency. He has shownthat minorities are not deficient in intelligentsia and majorities do not have monopoly of the intelligentsia populist leaders.
Goodluck Jonathan is the minority symbol. His re-election means an ennoblement of theminorities. It makes the minority tribes feel loved, feel wanted and fee lappreciated. It gives them a sense of belonging. Indeed it makes themcounterparts in the national development process. The best ruler can come fromthe least tribe in this country. We must give the minority, hence, GodluckJonathan the opportunity to rule this nation. That will foster unity indiversity. All minorities in Nigeria should see Goodluck's candidacy as the symbol of their rights and hopes in a country with the preponderance of the tyranny of "number". The majority brothers should take these lessons when majorityrefuse to hear the cry of minorities in their midst, God Himself shall takeover their battle, for the God of majorities is also the God minorities. Let Goodluck run and let the majority tribes give him their votes. Zoning is meantfor man and not the other way round!
Pastor Manjoe is the immediate past President General of Ebira Youth Congress, a Delegate at theDefunct National Political Reform Conference; and a Chief Lecturer with F.C.E.Okene
The plethora of geographical entities in different sizes, all over the world, isthe contrivance of divine wisdom. God is the master-architect. In building thisworld He reckoned with diverse sizes. He fashioned the big nations and the smallnations. He designed the big tribes and the small tribes. Virtually all thingsare in sundry sizes: big men, small men, big rivers, small rivers, big trees,small trees. The sum total of all these is a universe with compelling appeal.
Itfollows therefore, that any attempt by man in his own inventions to ascribemonopoly to big sizes is a curious and deliberate confrontation with divinearrangement. Characteristically, man has continually challenged the divinewisdom by suggesting and effecting his own devices. God juxtaposed minoritieswith majorities to make the world thick, but man with prejudices sought totwist this arrangement by ascribing to the minorities inferiority tag.
Firstly,let us see who a minority is. Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary definesminority as "a small group within a community or country that is differentbecause of race, religion, language." Dr. Amos Olagboye, in his book: 'Kogi:Is this the dream State?" sees an ethnic minority as "A social clusterof a perceived common stock, the members of which share common objective attributesand identity different from the rest of the population to which they arehowever, numerically inferior within a given geo-political entity". ProfessorTam David-West in his 'Philosophical Essays' likened theminority complex to the 'underdog-complex'. It is the undergo complex syndromethat has raised very serious issues around the people who,, by reason of theirsmall size in nation states, have been subjected to relative deprivations interms of appointments and the vexed question of power balancing.
Nigeriatypifies a nation with very intricate dealings about minorities. Nigeria hasover 300 tribal groups. Of these, the most prominent, by reason of populousnessand geographical expanse are the Hausa, the Igbo and the Yoruba. The fate ofNigeria has, and is always being decided by these main tribes. Historicalantecedents in this country show that there had been complex power play amongthese three major ethnic groups. The bitter 30-month civil war in this countrywas the result of the cry by Igbos of marginalization by a supposedHausa-dominated federal government.
The plurality of our nation in terms of ethnic configuration is a feature of a modernsociety and a product of divine order. Neither the major tribes nor the minorities made themselves who they are as to prompt boasting or lamentation.The concept of unity in diversity is a constant refrain in a heterogeneouscountry aimed at assuaging fears of ethnic domination. While we chanted thisage-long refrain, in practice, we did another thing entirely. The same northernchampions of zoning today were the same element who vehemently opposed the ideaof rotational presidency being entrenched in the constitution during the defunct2005 National Political Reform Conference. While some of us (minorities)canvassed for power sharing among the six geo-political zones, they, themajority tribes opted for zoning principle in the party constitutions betweenthe north and the south. To them it is a taboo to have the zoning/rotational principle in the constitution. Their carnal calculation is if it comes to thenorth, the Hausa-Fulani will naturally overwhelm minorities in the north totake the coveted position and when it comes to the South it is either theYorubas or the Igbos. The minorities can wait for the crumbs that falls from the master's table.
Minoritiesin this country have lived in perpetual subjugation under the harassing intimidation of major tribes. While the major tribes have their way; minoritytribes only have their say. The big brothers hinge their bully tendency on thegarbled theory that democracy is a game of numbers. That is why they must viewrulership of this nation, appointments into ministries, boards and parastatals.Even, the federal character concept is often submerged in the murky waters ofnepotism – jobs and other appointments for next-of-kin and ethnic loyalists.This tendency even infiltrates areas where catchment area policy is battered tobits by the juggernauts of majority politics.
TheNiger Delta area convulsed with militancy because the people were tired ofbeing insulted just because they are minorities. What the majorities will nottolerate were wickedly given to the Ijaws, the Efiks, the Ibibios, the Urobos/Iteskiris.And we saw the resistance and the pardonable intransigence. As David-Westnoted: "It would be self-defeating if not self-destructive for majorities toshow ossified insensitivity to minority problems".
Thequestion is: if we all belong to the same country, bound together by a legaldocument under which seal is our indivisibility, who, then, has more right thanthe other in a phenomenon with shared ownership? It is astonishingly ridiculousthat we can be so blind to the tenets of our founding document because of narrow interests.
Section39(1a) of the 1999 constitution protects the right of every citizen. It says: "A citizen of Nigeria of a particular community, ethnic group, place of origin,sex, religion or political opinion shall not, by reason only that he is such aperson – (a) be subjected either expressly by, or in the practical applicationof, any law in force in Nigeria or any executive or administrative action ofthe government to disabilities or restrictions to which citizens of Nigeria ofother communities, ethnic groups, places of origin, sex, religions, orpolitical opinions are not made subject". It is therefore a justiceable matterwhen a citizen from any part of the country is subjected to any form of deprivation.The truth is that we trite with the based document that is the basis of ourcorporate existence. If Goodluck Jonathan and minorities are protected by the letter and spirit of thisdocument, then it is unpatriotic and a blatant disservice for any person orgroup to want to edge them out of their inalienable rights.
Someof us watched with dismay the submissions of the leadership of the sardauna magazine on NTA who vehemently opposed President Goodluck Jonathan contestingthe 2011 elections. It was just true-to-type. As celebrated as Ahmadu Bello isin the North, Sardauna was a one-Nigeria skeptic. Greene said of him in hisbook 'Crisisand Conflict in Nigeria': "The mistake of 1914 has come to light". Thata few of his proselytes frown at Jonathan's probable come-back in 2011 is morethan an oblique reference to ethnic supremacy and minority-phobia. Thissickness must be cured now or never. Our resolve to attack this pathologicalhatred for minorities by some misguided elements should be expressed in ourinsistence of Jonathan remaining President 2011.
Jonathanis President today and Peter Yakowa is Governor of Kaduna today only by theexigencies of the times. Normal but warped political calculations could neverhave created this opportunity for them. Reason? They are minority people! Thisis the worst of insults. Even then, providence allowed both for them to come topower to tell the big brothers that He (God) determines who comes to power, notour scheming. God values citizens from zones perceived by men to count less.The majorities use the parameters of illogicalities to denigrate them. But itwill be foolish for human to lower whom God esteem. It is also amount to insulting God for making you big when you despise the minority.
An obvious fact is that everyone is now more conscious of his right than everbefore. Racist supremacists in America know this today. Barack Obama who isfrom a racial minority is in power in the world's strongest democracy. If, according to Randal Jarrel, America's present is other people's future," then Nigeria, whose democratic ethos is crafted after America, cannot afford toignore the mood of the times.
The minorities must not only have their say they must have their way. Tocquevillein 1835 said: The nations of our time cannot prevent the conditions of man from becoming equal". If our constitution underpins this submission in it sphilosophical foundation rooted in equality and egalitarianism, then, the minorities, assisted by the zoning clamour, must see new vistas ofopportunities in Nigeria. They cannot afford to be pariahs in their owncountry.
The previous leaders of this country: Zik, Balewa, Ironsi, Murtala, Obasanjo,Shagari, Buhari, Babangida, Shonekan, Abacha, Salami and Yar'Ardua come fromthe three major ethnic groups. Jonathan is the first president from a minorityarea. He was tipped as Yar'Ardua's running mate in 2007 elections in answer tothe bold assertiveness of the Niger Deltans. The trouble the federal governmenthad in curtailing militancy in the Niger Delta area shows that the country has a daunting challenge where and when people's right are trampled upon. It is the same with kidnapping today. Until the nation extends robust promises to hercitizens, she would only be attempting to re-brand filth and she should beready for face-offs.
Jonathan,in his brief stint in office, has shown that he is larger than minorityinterests. He has ably handled the country as his constituency. He has shownthat minorities are not deficient in intelligentsia and majorities do not have monopoly of the intelligentsia populist leaders.
Goodluck Jonathan is the minority symbol. His re-election means an ennoblement of theminorities. It makes the minority tribes feel loved, feel wanted and fee lappreciated. It gives them a sense of belonging. Indeed it makes themcounterparts in the national development process. The best ruler can come fromthe least tribe in this country. We must give the minority, hence, GodluckJonathan the opportunity to rule this nation. That will foster unity indiversity. All minorities in Nigeria should see Goodluck's candidacy as the symbol of their rights and hopes in a country with the preponderance of the tyranny of "number". The majority brothers should take these lessons when majorityrefuse to hear the cry of minorities in their midst, God Himself shall takeover their battle, for the God of majorities is also the God minorities. Let Goodluck run and let the majority tribes give him their votes. Zoning is meantfor man and not the other way round!
Pastor Manjoe is the immediate past President General of Ebira Youth Congress, a Delegate at theDefunct National Political Reform Conference; and a Chief Lecturer with F.C.E.Okene
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