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“What is the most resilient parasite? Bacteria? A virus? An intestinal worm? An idea. Resilient... highly contagious. Once an idea has taken hold of the brain it's almost impossible to eradicate. An idea that is fully formed - fully understood - that sticks; right in there somewhere.” - Cobb (inception)
Weeks prior to the February general elections, I stumbled across a material that gave a ‘supposedly’ honest overview of the Nigeria first and only civil war. This sparked my curiosity, and I went down the rabbit hole, reading all sorts of material (pro and anti events), from the independence, through the first republic, military takeovers and coups, second, third and the current fourth republic. I couldn't help but think the fact that we don’t learn these events within the four walls of our school is so bad, that in recent times, we are threading through similar events that led to dark times in the bad old days without even realising it.
Just like the opening line of this write up, an idea can make or mar an entire generation, or probably annihilate a people. As little as an idea can be, it can spread like wild fire, beyond the control of any man. We can look back in time for lessons. To summarise, The events that occurred prior to 1967 sprung up and popularised an idea that the 'Igbos' wanted to take over and ‘rule’ over the Northerners. Events that happened as a result of this idea eventually led to the bloodiest civil war the West Africa history.
What are we experiencing now in Lagos? Similar situation, yeah? However, in this case the (same) Igbos want to takeover and rule over the 'Yorubas'. (So much to be an Igbo person). Personally, as a Lagosian, who is prolly fortunate to be learned enough, I can see through the sham of the propaganda war being played especially by the APC goons as a counter attack against their LP counterparts. But what does a person who has limited knowledge about these events do with the “My Lagos, is not your Lagos” cult chant? You know what’s ironic, Nigeria has over 400 distinct ethnic groups, but guess who has “character syndrome”, the same ones that were at the forefront of the civil war! Sad to see.
Funny how that the phrase “Lagos is a no man’s land” in my own ‘experience’ has been used by the non-Lagosian Yorubas more often than their Igbo counterparts. The same persons who do not recognize minority tribes in the state as indigenes and would rather tell you “You’re not from Nigeria but immigrants from Benin Republic”, are surprisingly defending Lagos from intruders? Interesting times to be alive. However, I am personally not concerned about here.
What I am more concerned about is that a lot of persons of the Yoruba origin now see this propaganda chants of clout-chasing party loyalists as “true” even though it isn’t. There are captains of Companies from various ethnic backgrounds (that are not Yoruba) that literally reside in the metropolitan city of Lagos, which was the Nigeria Capital City for a staggering 77 years and has always been Nigeria’s economy hub given that fact and its strategic location. Are these captains (who are in fact Igbos) part of the plan to takeover Nigeria’s most populous state?
Lagos is undeniably the most prosperous state in the country (thanks to its rich history partly mentioned above, contrary to the erroneous attribution to a certain individual) and by far the most complex. The massive Lagos State economy and its highly stratified civil service make it such that, its governance can’t be joked with. Hence, it will be a great disservice to choose an inexperienced person as its leader. But is ethnic propaganda a way to go about that?
In this election period, we have experienced so much propaganda that it is becoming worrisome.But the question remains "to what end?" Elections will come and go, but what do one what of a dangerous idea that can potentially lead to a repeat of the bad old days? We need to do better!
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