OUR COMMON BATTLE

Permit me please, it is quite lengthy.

Hopping on a bike, trying to beat the traffic and making up for lost time, I almost didn’t care how much the bike man wanted to charge, especially because of the pain in my leg from the heels.  Even though I didn’t know how much it was to be for that distance, I had an idea. So when he called out N400, I was alarmed and he quickly corrected himself.

As we rode off, I didn’t fail to give him a piece of my mind, he tried to justify himself by saying he is no ‘aboki’ as such safe driving was guaranteed. He made a derogatory remark about the ‘aboki’ bike men and how it is hard to get them to ride safely. By this time, I was completely pissed with him, because I had heard such remarks about Hausas in the south too many times. And such remarks are beginning to hold more venom in them with the on-going boko haram issues in the north.

At some point it seemed like I was starting to defend the north for reasons unknown to the man, and out of ‘fear’ of who I could be, he stopped talking. But here’s all I said- I painstakingly tried to explain to this man that most of these folks are usually not treated with respect when spoken to, either because of how we see them to be uneducated and our distaste for the Islamic sect- Boko Haram, to which I think unconsciously we have tagged anyone that is Hausa and Muslim as. Such labels on them is what often plays out in our angry out bursts at them and sometimes one can almost feel the ethno-religious tension when one of these ‘abokis’ and southerners have some rift.

I choose to say this with some measure of authority drawing from my own experiences as one from the Niger Delta in the event of the MEND movement at its peak of kidnappings, vandalization  and unrest that plagued the south-south. I had often visited my place and didn’t grow up there. Prior to this time, I never cared to show my affiliation to where I come from. But as the security issues began to grow especially in my own state- Rivers, I started to feel some sort of social stigma on me.

Often when someone asked “where are you from” I defensively said “Niger Delta”. This was because usually I get such remarks as “Oh, you are one of the militants”. I didn’t realize it much, but I started loathing anyone that wasn’t from there and saw them as insensitive, plus there was this constant cry that ‘not everyone from the Niger Delta is a militant or in support of their modus operandi’, which often fell on deaf ears.

But the truth is educated as I was, it drove me to learn more about my culture, feel my people’s pain, and I often joked with my Yoruba boyfriend that if anything happened, he shouldn’t think I wouldn’t take sides with my people first. But at those times, I did mean it. Much as I frowned at what was being done, the insensitive remarks of people about where I came from and what was being done there didn’t bug me anymore.

The point here is that, like that bike man, I think we need to be careful how we throw words at these folks back here in the south, because we have come to place labels on them, over something that they themselves loathe.  The events of boko haram is not a thing anyone is happy about. Truth is that yes, it is their people perpetrating this evil, but that has not protected them from being victims in any way either. Just as during the MEND crisis some indigenes were part of the victims.

We continue at this rate, loathe them, and act aggressively towards them, and we might be stepping on some war nerves. All it takes is just a little fight that can easily be escalated into what we all do not bargain for. Right now, Boko Haram has gotten a response call from the MEND leader, who is suppose to be a fellow Muslim, but in support of his own kinsman, the president.

If we push these folks to the wall back here in the south, we will create tigers out of our own suppose domestic cats. And when push gets to shove, we will most likely all affiliate with our tribes before religion, which begs the question, who/what do we loathe? Islam or Hausa/Fulani?

Someone once said “Nigerians tend to be serious and unserious at the same time”. This works for us as it makes light our heavy burdens, but we also tend to throw the words jokingly in the wrong manner, passing across messages we know not their impact.

I have often heard people say things like- “let them try their rubbish, we are more than them here, we will kill them one-by-one”. This may be true, but is that really the kind of Nigeria we need? We need to treat one another with respect, not judging one from the general stand point of the ills or short comings of their tribe or religion. Because this war is a fight against Boko Haram, not Muslims or Hausas.

Nigeria has been ranked as the 5^th unpeaceful African country (http://www.informationnigeria.org/2012/08/nigeria-is-fifth-least-peaceful-country-in-africa-global-peace-index.html)  That should tell us something. We are ranked closely with DRC, Somalia, Sudan. What those countries are experiencing may seem far-fetched from us, but we may be pushing ourselves closer to such anarchy without knowing it. The world is already seeing, why don’t we?

Quoting Hillary Clinton on her visit to Nigeria- “Nigeria is a country with great opportunities”. We can  incubate and birth those opportunities or we can abort them, choice is ours.  And please to all who have issues with the aboki bike men, if you gently tell them “Aboki, kadan kadan” chances are they will listen. It works all the time and is my own little magic as to why I never have issues with them.

Miss Young