Undoubtedly, Nigeria is a fractured nation that is experiencing enormous polarizations due to overwhelming presence of tribal sentiments and lack of social capital.
Nigeria, a populous nation with inestimable promises, prides itself as the giant of Africa that has multiple tribes with numerous ethnic languages—a diversity that should be a source of strength and a miscellany that should be cherished to project national pride. Instead, multiplicities of language and tribal leanings have created an environment that shuns synergy of ideas and experiences that should have culminated to necessary and sufficient conditions for addressing national issues. Most importantly, the phenomenon has stifled the national unity and cohesiveness a nation needs to meet its most pressing needs.
Unfortunately, glaringly absent in Nigeria is the national identity and a shared sense of belonging, which emanate from social capital. According to Robert D. Putnam, social capital is the demonstration of peoples’ “moral obligations and norms, social values (especially trust) and social networks (especially voluntary associations)” to a group or a nation. He further said that a society that has evolved to have a high political integration owes it to its accumulation of credible social capital.
Other people such as Pierre Bourdieu, a French sociologist, James S. Coleman, and Michael Woolcock postulate that social capital is a necessary catalyst for economic development of a society. They have theorized that social capital, which is primarily the active interactional relationships among people based on trust, shared values and norms, and mutual understanding and respect form the basis for interconnectedness and enhanced national identity.
Therefore, a nation’s accumulation of social capital helps it to foster national identity that spurs its citizens to act collectively for a common purpose. The country’s social capital along with national identity nurture trust among its people.
Consequently, the citizens see their country as one unified entity whose collective interest overrides their selfish benefits. Similarly, social capital which breeds trust helps solidify peoples’ allegiance to their nation, an allegiance that supersedes parochial and vintage commitment.
But because of the absence of the foregoing, Nigeria’s diversity becomes a heavy burden that worries so many people; and caused some to fret about the survival of the country. Also, lack of national identity has left the country highly polarized with tribal sentiments permeating the fabric of the society. Every policy, decision or appointment is always viewed through an enlarged tribal lens.
Thus, it is safe to say that Nigeria is divided along tribal lines and the leaders have no veritable policies to the tribal chasm as they have abandoned equity and fairness as their guiding principle for dealing with challenging issues.
All the recent elections and the subsequent political discourse are driven by tribal sentiments. Left to suffer were potent national issues that demand the attention of the policymakers and federal government. There is a gamut of issues that will put the resolve of our young democracy to test, but it appears that our leaders are more preoccupied by their own venal interest. Issues like insecurity caused by Boko Haram, selective prosecution, and others have the potential to destabilize Nigeria and send its nascent democracy to its unfortunate demise. Regrettably, politicians have cleverly used some of the hot button issues to undermine the discussion of marginalization, poverty and hunger, poor healthcare system, high unemployment, pervasive corruption, and a host other pertinent issues.
It’s a travesty! While the western countries are eagerly monitoring the developments in Nigeria, many Nigerians are drawing a disappointing conclusion of the country call Nigeria because of a lack of leadership and inequity in the federal appointments. They strongly contend that the federal appointments may never reflect the federal character principle thereby creating a mistrust within the nation.
The clamor for war on corruption can be significantly compromised by apparent lack of social capital—a necessary trust that will galvanize the populace to support the federal government’s agenda. Citizens will not trust the political leaders to carry out an objective war on sleaze. Most people have begun to question the government’s fairness in it war on corruption. They feel that the government is not evenhanded in its activities. While some assumed culprits have been harshly dealt with, others may go scot-free because of their tribal, religious, or political affiliations. Invariably, lack of national identity weakens the central government’s efforts of achieving substantive national objectives. Most of the time, policy pronouncements seem hallow because the country is not highly integrated politically and socially for its citizens to pledge total allegiance to it.
I am of the opinion that if the politicians and policymakers do not reverse course, they will be held responsible for destroying the nation. They must come up with policies that would allow the country to accumulate social capital to enable it accomplish significant objectives. All actions of the government must be geared toward building trust among its citizens and not perpetuating tribalism. All hands should be on deck to build a national image and spirit the citizens can be proud of and identified with.
Hence, Nigeria should consider implementing strong residency rights. Nevertheless, any action short of full residency rights similar to what is obtainable in the United States will be veneer for appeasement. Any use of maintenance of culture or tradition for a limited action on this matter cannot cloak the real reason for ethnic violence—the total subjugation of a particular tribe, as well as Christians. In the absence of full residency rights to its citizens, no matter where they live, ethnic and religious violence will continue to flourish.
Thus, national identity will continue to be elusive in Nigeria. So, to achieve a true federalism and accumulate social capital, Nigeria must act now to abolish the “indigene-settler” concept to allow strong national identity to reign.