By Ani Chinonso E.
UNITY OF NIGERIAN NATION-STATESISMANTLING THE LIES ABOUT THE INDIAN EXAMPLE.
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When folks come to you to peddle such unfounded and unresearched argument of the possibility of political stability in Nigeria citing the #IndianExample,do well to remind them of the many factors which make it impossible for Nigeria to be united like the Indian Republic;
It is true that Nigeria and India are similar along the following lines;common population diversity, common colonial masters with deliberate "divide-and-rule strategy and peaceful transfer from colonial rule to independence.
*While India have cleavages(divisions) that cuts across each other Nigeria have differences in almost everything which overlaps on each other along regional lines.
Do you know it's not true that Hindus in India speak the same #language,are of the same #socioeconomic class,and live in the same #region.
*While Indians(both the Aryan and Dravidian race) have common ancestral history and traditions experiencing a unifying independence, Nigerian nation-states had separate civilizations, colonised differently (while the Muslim north rejected independence,the animist/christian south accepted independence in 1957 ahead of the North's 1959.)Thus, the Nigerian independence wasn't a unifying one but an " annexation model" against the wishes of the ppl.
Also,while Indians exploited their diversity in precolonial times to pursue their independence, Nigerian independence had ppl pulled from different ethnicities even wen they weren't prepared for nationhood.
*While India have cleavages-tribe,caste, region,religion, and languages-slice across each other regardless of regional boundaries, Nigeria not only have differences overlapping on to of one another,they also coincide with #regional boundaries e.g A Normadic Fulani man who is a Muslim with core sharial adherence finds his abode in the same North while same is for an animist Southerner who practices Christianity with clear cultural adherence. Over 250 ethnic grps,with distinct land&cultural xtics are geographically separated.
*Pre-colonial,colonial and post-colonial India had strongly promoted #central govt with equal resources (uranium, natural gas and oil) whereas political stability in Nigeria,since British inquest, have been undermined by the unequal resource distribution and promotion of regional govt.Nigeria lack common national history unlike the Indians.
*Most striking is the fact that while Indian territories and boundaries remained untouched during colonisation,the 1885 Berlin conference had boundaries in Nigeria artificially dismantled with blatant disregard for the existing tribes,demography and geography of its inhabitants.
Finally,Nigeria as a people lack common national history unlike the Indians who have had common civilization which had forged prior to colonisation.
#Beguided.
