By Prof (Amb)George Obiozor
Most of the Diasporans here live in Europe; Can you show me one multi-ethnic state in *Europe* where one group is positioned to dominate the rest that hasn’t broken up?
There’s nowhere in the world where the *white man* accepts domination from another *white man* in *perpetuity.*
It used to be so under the *Roman* empire and the like. *Not anymore*. The *Communists* tried it, dividing society into capitalists and proletariats, deluding themselves that ethnicity is effectively swept under the carpet, but what followed? The Communist edifices in *Czechoslovakia,* *Yugoslavia,* and the big brother, *USSR,* all collapsed, while the two *Germans* that are ethnically the same but split by *communism* vs *capitalism* were reunited. Such is the power of *ethnic nationalism.*
*Czechoslovakia* was made up of *two ethnic groups*, the *Czechs* and the *Slovakians*. Both separated peacefully on *1st January 1993.* The former is today *10.6 million* people and the latter *5.4 million.* Added together, they’re not up to *Lagos*. Yet, they split for *peace.* Two masters can’t be in the same house.
*Yugoslavia* in *1991* was *23.2 million*, barely more than *Lagos* population. It broke into *six countries* same year – all along ethnic lines, namely: *Bosnia* and *Herzegovina*, *Croatia,*
*Macedonia*, *Montenegro,* *Serbia* , and *Slovenia*.
Then the big brother, *USSR*. It had, at least, the following ethnic groups identified by their languages:
*Regional languages:*
*Ukrainian
*Belarusian
*Uzbek
*Kazakh
*Georgian
*Azerbaijani
*Lithuanian
*Moldavian
*Latvian
*Kyrgyz
*Tajik
*Armenian
*Turkmen
*Estonian
*Minority languages:*
*Abkhaz
*Bashkir
*Buryat
*Chechen
*Finnish
*Volga German
*Korean
*Ossetian
*Tatar
&
*various others.
Today, your fingers will not be enough to count the *number of countries* that have emerged from the *USSR.*
Sit down there and be preaching unity in Nigeria as if you’re the kindest gentleman on earth while you have no solution to the genocide in *Southern Kaduna,* the illegal but officially condoned arms in the hands of killer herdsmen roaming the country, and be condemning those better informed about the fact that the country is undergoing the strains of a *forced union* and should be *peacefully restructured* or let people go their separate ways.
In *Europe,* the two best examples of fairly stable *multi-ethnic states* are the *UK* and the *Switzerland*. The former is led by reasonable men who permitted regional autonomy to the *Irish*, the *Scots* and the *Welsh*, while the *English* dominate *Westminster*. That’s something some of us are asking for, but you’re fighting against it in your own country wracked by *ethnic crisis*. Your own people are better off under oppression of fellow black men because your people have bad leaders who can’t do better than their new *internal colonisers.*
The latter country, *Switzerland*, has *four ethnic groups*. Each of them *rotates the presidency* through seven cantons that constitute the *federating units*. All the four languages of the four ethnic groups are recognized as official languages and school languages to boot, namely, *German, French, Italian*, and *Romansch* that has just a few thousand speakers!
There’s nowhere in the world where the *Caucasians* allow the domination of their group by another.
In *Canada*, *Quebec* is the only full *French-speaking province*, aside a little section of *New Brunswick.* The other *seven provinces* are *English-speaking.* Yet, *Canada* is *bilingual* for the sake of *Quebec*! And each of the provinces is largely *self-governing.*
Here we are in *Nigeria,* you have people arguing vehemently that a *decrepit, structurally-flawed, and crisis-prone artificial contraption* badly configured by the *British* only needs good people to survive. Why not centralise the powers of the *British regions* to *London* and see what happens?
I once believed in Nigeria but not in oppressive contraption saddled with brutality of fellow Nigerians.
*I think it’s time to ‘let my people go’ OR change the status quo of governance.*
#COPIED
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