The Great Exchange, Tribalism/ ethnicity in Nigeria for Racism in the Western World

Isn’t life a parody! Back in our respective homelands we complain and gripe about tribalism, ethnicity and the multiplicity of ills that befall us as a result of the regions we come from – the North/South divide and more recently the South/South divide.

We moan and groan about limited access to higher institutions, discrimination for lucrative jobs and political positions, social infrastructural developments, access to health care facilities and lack of pivotal investments in our respective towns and villages.

We even take up arms, machetes, axes and any forms of weaponry that we have access to, to inflict untold hardship on folks from neighbouring towns and villages in the fight or is it quest for land domination, access to natural resources and the control thereof.

Rather than immerse ourselves in changing these attitudes and behaviours we become immersed in the same ills that we speak against and realising that our efforts alone cannot in any way revolutionise these entrenched ways of live and rather than fight for those beliefs we hold so dear, we seek the easy way out.

We simply extract ourselves away from these tribal and ethnic discriminatory practices for a life in Western societies where oftentimes similar ills are visited on us disguised as racism.

Whilst the majority of us are quick to blame some of our inadequacies on racism and the resulting discrimination, we seldom admit to ourselves and the communities that we have now become a part of that we came here out of our volition, at times uninvited but yet given an equitable platform to contribute and share equitably on what there is.

To me this smacks of gross ingratitude because as benefactors of what we often take for granted, we are quick to forget that we are and will for centuries to come become assimilated into host cultures, therefore it is beholden us all to deride any perceptions of racism, rise above it, develop coping mechanisms for ridiculing any manifestations of such acts by being the very best there is in any works of lives that we find ourselves.

By doing this, our mental attitudes becomes refined, our perceptions becomes progressively positive, our demeanour and disposition towards such tenets (racism) becomes much more adaptable in so far as our performance and behavioural dispositions places us uniquely on a par with those who seeks to so discriminate on such grounds.

It is rather easier to wallow in self pity by taking comfort for our failures on the grounds of discrimination rather than exploiting the values that are derivable from the positive

discrimination policies that we have been afforded by State Institutions in attempt to equalise our rights of access to those opportunities that were hitherto closed to us.

Sincerely,

Philip Orumwense