ETHNICITY: A FAILED POLITICAL CAMPAIGN FORMULA

In the days of the nationalist, Chief Obafemi Awolowo of blessed memory, ethnicity was a major ideology that propelled his actions and conducts. This is why some argue that truly he was not a nationalist in advocacies, because he was sectional in his political direction. Chief Awolowo had a tendency to be inclined towards ethnicity, relegating himself from a national hero status to become a sectional leader of the Oduduwa Kingdom. 

Chief Awolowo’s failure was as a result of politics through ethnicity dogma. The rest of Nigeria felt threatened and voted against his candidacy in protection of the plight of their people and the unity of Nigeria as one indivisible entity. However, Awo as he was fondly called by his admirers was a leader with high virtues, his prudent policies in the west made the region outstanding in educational attainment. 

Many leaders till this very day have tried to use this tool of beating the drums of ethnicity, in a bid to win political battles. Some drive it unto wars while some render their people vulnerable, living in perpetual fear of violence with other tribes, who attack them from time to time. 

Most governments in Africa, seeing the political mobilization of ethnicity as a threat, have rejected the use of ethnic differences as an explicit basis for political representation.  Empirical study finds that ethnic self-rule, in combination with the power politics of an authoritarian regime, has produced both intended and unintended outcomes. While arguably easing large-scale ethnic conflicts, it has led to ‘ethnicization’ of local socio economic disputes and to sharper inter-ethnic and intra-ethnic divides, often to the disadvantage of both groups.

The development and propagation of a corporate view of ethnicity has been a key element in politicizing ethnic cleavages in recent history. In 2007, a disputed election in Kenya erupted into a two-month political crisis that led to the deaths of more than a thousand people and the displacement of almost seven hundred thousand. Much of the violence fell along ethnic lines.

In the larger Nigerian State, there is serious conflict borne from ethnic-politics, while religion is infused into this acrimony. To add to this cauldron, all regions contain ethnic and religious minorities who harbour grievances against ethnic and religious majorities they see as hegemonic oppressors. These grievances are sometimes expressed through bitter political complaints, through sectarian crises stoked by political elites and incendiary media rhetoric and through violent insurgencies.

Social mobilization along ethnic lines has been revived by some politicians in Delta State to compete for material resources and power in the 2015 gubernatorial election. These politicians who are beating the drums of ethnicity should remember the 1994 genocide that took the lives of an estimated 800,000 Rwandans, the vast majority of them Tutsi. This genocide–and the world’s utter abandonment of the Rwandan people–should never be forgotten. Nor should we overlook the political and ethnic violence that preceded and followed the genocide, whether in Rwanda, Burundi, or the Democratic Republic of the Congo. One can only hope that the next 20 years will be kinder to a region that has suffered so much over the past generation.

Those who are sponsoring the Urhobo for Governor Agenda in the PDP are Statesmen that should not be celebrated as sectional leaders. Our elites should not allow themselves to be seen by the masses as sectional Leaders. The attempt to use themselves as symbol of ethnic hatred is unfortunate and counterproductive. Every serious PDP member since 1999 is aware of the issue of zoning and should stand by zoning, which was instituted in 1998.

We should all remember that what is good for one is also good for the other, specifically; the words equality and equity have different meanings. Equity speaks to public actions and policies in the cause of fairness and social justice. It requires a sufficient distribution of social resources and positions to rectify initially unequal conditions for different groups of people.

Why then are some sections of the Urhobo people seeing the governorship position in the State as a birth right that no one should take away? I pooh-pooh this level of insincerity and fake sense of superiority over others with no sense of consideration of others as humans who have the same blood, flesh and thoughts. Well, it may be pure politicking. 

It is however very disturbing that some Delta politicians have become slaves to their ethnic origins instead of harnessing these diversities towards national and State development. Nigerians are fanatics when it comes to ethnicity. It is therefore not surprising for a politician to get angry because he/she is wrongly associated with another tribe. This is not the true reflection of a federal nation. “One of the sociological problems hindering the growth of the State is multi-ethnicity” and the political misuse by the majority tribe. 

However, despite all these, there are issues which point to the fact that ethnicity is not the problem in Delta State but the people themselves who choose to abuse ethnicity for their own tribal interest. There is nothing wrong with ethnicity. It can make and create avenues for healthy competitions in economic development. The period after independence saw a healthy competition between the major tribes in Nigeria. South-west led in cocoa production, groundnuts and cereals in the north while palm products and root crops dominated the economy of the south-east.

If the Urhobos in Delta Central Senatorial district believe the only way by which they can capture power is by preaching hate homily against the other groups, they should reconsider their stand, for it will work against them.
Great Ogboru’s failure in the last election should serve as a big lesson to these bigots.

Another aspect of the ethnic sentiments is the belief by the Orubebe group to cultivate the political Idea that rotation of governance must be done on ethnic lines. Rotation must be done on true political and democratically recognised regions as Senatorial District.

It is an unwritten accord of all the PDP stakeholders that the governorship position will be rotated among the three senatorial districts. So the current promotion of ethnic segregation in the State will only cause hatred among the ethnic entities.

Those who hope to win elections through ethnic hate propagation will not only fail but the promoters will be brought to political abyss, while fairness, justice and equity will be enthroned in the Delta State.

The next Governor will be a product of unity not ethnic bigotry.