The Rise Of Nazism In Nigeria By Erwin Ofili

By Erwin Ofili
Nigeria is beset with many developmental problems. Nurturing
arenascent democracy, we have to contend with bad government and
forces determined to subvert the democratic regime. The politicians
and the Nigerian people are more concerned about the next election
than governance. That is why the conflict in Rivers state has
dominated the media than about any new programs on education reform,
laws against corruption, etc. This emphasises the need for Nigerians
to be alert to misrule. Why are we not talking about political
wrangling while the Senate has passed a bill granting lifetime pension
to the Senate president? Why are we arguing about the ethnicity of the
future president rather than discussing how to stop the
inexorabledecline of public education?
The distraction that these arguments provide gives bad performing
government officials an easy escape. The governor of Abia state, who
has been clueless right from the beginning of his tenure, decided to
sack nonindigenes from the state civilservice. There was hue and cry
but little else. Nobody was made to resign or prosecuted for what was
obviously an illegal action and nobody was made to resign. The
discerning among us predicted that this action, if not punished, would
precipitate similar actions elsewhere in the country. Their fears have
been proven prescient in what has recentlyhappened in Lagos state
where 70 Nigerians where bundled in a truck and moved over to Onitsha
in Anambra state.
It has been over 40 years since the end of Nigeria's Civil War. The
events leading to the Civil War saw Nigeria's largest movement of a
mass of people fleeing for their safety in the face of vengeful and
genocidal attacks. Now, in peace time (in relative terms), we have
seen something very different. People from the former breakaway
republic of Biafra have made Nigeria their home. Lagos – being the
economic capital of the country – has seen a particularly large influx
of people from the Eastern region and other parts of the country. The
poverty in much of the country and the uneven distribution of wealth
has contributedto the large migration into Lagos. Also, the porous
borders of the country means that refugees from poorer countries and
war-torn regions easily get into the country contributing immensely to
the social pressures and crime rate in Lagos.
In several fora – in online forums, in personal conversations, and
even in some newspaper articles – some people who identify themselves
as more Lagosian than others have toyed with the idea of sending
nonindigenes "back to where they come from". Many of these people
actually have their roots in other South West states, not Lagos. They
complain particularly about Lagos immigrants from South Eastern
Nigeria, in many cases confusing people from the Niger Delta for
them.These characters complain that "give them an inch they would go a
mile", "rent your house to them, they wouldsoon own your house", "they
are too ambitious", "they are taking over Lagos", "they are all over
Lagos and our markets, how many of us are in their markets", "why
can't they stay intheir South East", "they are overpopulating Lagos",
etc. For a country that many fawn over patriotism, there is a lot of
us versus them in our conversations about eachother. Such people seem
to have their kindred spirits somewhere in the Lagos state government.
Lagos has made at least two of such abductions and transportation of
Nigerian citizens from the State to Onitsha. Probably, some Lagos
state officials thought that since Anambra isan emerging economic hub,
let the state share the burden of mass immigration.
The government of Lagos state has denied any involvement in the
criminal act. The Commissioner of Information of Lagos state, Mr
Lateef Ibirogba, while denying the act, included a loaded statement
that smacks of prevarication: "but we havebeen emphasising that people
must live within the law". Many of those arrested were so treated for
wandering; some were arrested while returning to their way homes or
going to their businesses. As before, laws against vagrancy and
wandering have been used to harass innocent individuals. But this is a
newtwist where Lagos acts like a nation state deporting foreigners.
But this is not the first time that such actions have been traced to
the state. Some beggars were reportedly deported to the Oyo state
secretariat.This development speaks to the weakness of the system of
identification that emphasises "state of origin". The Constitution and
the contradictions therein does a very bad job of trying to develop a
national spirit among Nigerians. Till today, there are some people who
identify as indigenous Lagosians who complain that others have taken
over the state. They say that people from other South West state and
even neighbouring countries use the identical culture to confuse the
original people of Lagos and get all the government positions along
with the benefits of political power. This is a very dangerous spirit
of Nazism that Nigerians ignore at their peril. It is dangerous to
assume that since Lagostends to be more liberal about these kinds of
issues, such voices can be ignored. We all owe our future generation
the responsibility to speak up against such demagoguery when we hear
it.
This transport of human cargo to Onitsha is the offshoot of the
demented ideology that some Lagos residents are more Lagosian than
others. And I must not forget to mention that these people were keptin
inhuman conditions during their detention. They were fed only once a
day; over 29 people died in detention. They were bundled in a truck
and dumped like refuse on upper Iweaka Bridge. All this in flagrant
disregard of the right to free movement of Nigerians within the
country granted by the Constitution. Why complain of foreigners
treating Nigerians like trash when we are modelling worse treatment of
Nigerians in Nigeria? Even foreign criminals would not be treated like
this without provoking a diplomatic row.
This kind of madness is the cause of strife in many parts of Nigeria.
The conflict in Jos is the result of fight over resources based on
indigene and settler discrimination. Many people have assumed that
Lagos is largely shielded from that kind of problem. They point to the
appointment of an Anambra indigene in the Fashola's cabinet. Others
argue that appointment was a tokenistic political move to reward the
significant Igbo vote in Lagos. I am of the opinion that such
appointments should be a norm in all states of Nigeria that are
serious about national integration. I am glad that there were similar
appointments of nonindigenes in South Eastern states before it
happened in Lagos. Such appointments, based more on merit than state
of origin, is more to the benefit of the state than the nonindegene
appointee as the state makes use of qualified personnel at the expense
of the state where the appointee comes from.
If Nigeria hopes to avoid future conflicts that centre on fights over
resources, they should make a Constitution that emphasises residency
over origin. Besides, the state of origin requirement has always been
gamed by Nigerians when needed to get favours like scholarships,
bursaries, appointments, etc. It is too easy to falsify evidence of
state of origin in Nigeria. State discrimination based onethnicity has
never worked in countries that practice it. In Indonesia, it has kept
the bumiputra –who the policy was supposed to favour – at a lower
economic and social strata that the Chinese and Indians, who the
policy discriminated against. In South Africa, it has kept theBlacks
severely affected by unemployment while benefiting a few with access
to power. In Nigeria, it has ruined our public education system making
good quality expensive for everybody, kept poverty and unemployment
high, andspawned a bloody ethnic conflict which has endured.
The Nazis in our government would keep having a free ride if errant
actions are not punished. The Lagos state government must be made to
pay compensation to the victims of their illegal deportation. The
family ofthose who lost their lives in detention should be identified
and adequately compensated. Whoever had the idea of deporting
Nigerians to their states of origin or to Onitsha, whether in the
Lagos state government or within the Kick Against Indiscipline (KAI)
parastatal should be prosecuted and punished for their evil act. The
Abia state governor must be made to pay for his criminal sack of
nonindigenes from the state civil service. Other states where similar
cases of illegal actions were taken against Nigerians should be
adequately dealt with. The Constitutional Amendment should focus more
on giving all Nigerians equal rights wherever they choose to reside
than on giving the Senate president a life pension. The corruption in
our Customs that makes illegal migration into the country too easy
must be tackled, along with the corruption in government that makes
most projects undoable. All this is necessary if we are to win the
fight against Nazism in the country. Peoples and nations throughout
history that have fallen to the seduction of nativism have always seen
a long-term decline in their fortunes worse than the economic problem
that initially feeds nativist ideology – like in Pakistan.As history
has shown us, especially in Europe, the forces of evil and
backwardness would always be with us. They become especially active in
times of economic hardship to blame others. The British have the
British National Party (BNP) which reared its head during the recent
financial crisis.They were defeated only because thepeople spoke up
against their racist agenda. Nigerians have consistently failed to
speak up against similar discriminatory demagogues in the country.
When the Sagari governmentblamed the Ghanaians for the country's woes,
most Nigerians supported the "Ghana must go" movement. During the
pogroms before the Civil War and the mass emigration that ensued, some
Nigerians commented "let them go, so that food would be less
expensive". Now Nigerians are speaking up against the killings of NYSC
members during elections, against the jailing of innocent Nigerian
students in Malaysia and Russia, against the killing of Ibadan traders
by Boko Haram. If we truly want justice, peace and fair treatment,
hearken the Golden Rule: "do unto others as you would have them do
unto you."