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| Source: tourbrockersinternational.com |
(Pius Adesanmi)--Pan-Nigeria does not ask you to forget your ethnic,
religious or other identities. It asks you to sacrifice nothing. In fact,
pan-Nigeria cannot even exist as a philosophical concept without those
differences.
What I want you to know you cannot even be a good
Nigerian if you are not a fantastic Igbo, Yoruba, Ijaw, etc. So start by being
very proud of your ethnic and cultural identity and specificity. Then, apply
yourself to understanding the history and cultures of your ethnicity’s
ancestors.
You see, ethnic hatred in Nigeria is borne out of crass
ignorance of the humanism and philosophical generosity of the ancestors of the
federating ethnicities.
I have studied the cultures
of Africa long enough to understand their deep humanism which should form the
basis of an extension of the self into others, a projection into them to
respect them in their own distinction and specificity.
So, understanding the story
of humanism in your Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa, Fulani or Ogoni history and culture is
the road to the pan-Nigerian humanism I envision. Go back to your folk tales
and listen attentively to what happened to the tortoise whenever he undermined
the dignity of his own people or of neighbouring peoples.
The fundamental humanism in
our ancestral stories is what we have not been able to properly integrate into
the modern project Nigeria.
