Sacrificing Common Sense On The Altar of Ethnicity- By Mark A Israel

You can get to an ATM point smiling but you're likely to leave with a frown on your face. One of the reasons the Automated Teller Machine was introduced i believe was to decongest the banking halls and to make transactions easier and convenient. But when it takes an Atm-FirstBank Atm actually-as much as 10mins to serve a customer, and service ceases every 30mins and you've to wait for another 5mins, there's bound to be long queues and frustrated faces.

I was unlucky. Having anything to do with FirstBank is being unlucky. One could spend the whole day on a static queue. They have an informal policy of blaming the network for everything. If the Air conditioner malfunctions, network is blamed.

So i was on the queue praying the service won't trip off for the 5th time in 3hours when this guy that probably thought the perfume he was wearing was enough to earn him the front spot walked towards the queue. He went to explain to the guy in front of me why it was unsafe for him to queue up. "You can allow him but you'll lose your spot." I told the guy in front without paying attention to the scorn Mr 'queue jumper' directed at me.

Mr queue jumper was angry. He was furious that i didn't even notice his starched clothes nor did i perceive his expensive perfume. He rained insults on me, and capped his vituperations with this: "these people are in our town, yet they've the guts to ride us." Some other guys joined him. And before i could reply, a young lady, in the traditional attire quickly stood up from where she sat and rebuked him. She was an Hausa just like them. She told them that just because they were Hausas and indigenes of Kano does not mean other tribes must bow before them.

This kind of thinking is not limited to the north. Sometime last year i went to the main market in Owerri. I met this lady, a native, who told me "Hausas are entering every business in this market. They want to take over business from our people.....they sell things at cheaper price so most people buy from them. We'll soon drive them away."

The lady in question was an undergraduate in Imo state University.

Hausas in that market were less than one fifteenth of the Igbos. The lady does not know that there are as many Igbos as there are Hausas in Sabon Gari market in kano. A market which is probably four times as big as Owerri main market.
She did not know that her tribesmen, the Igbos enjoy a monopoly in the steel as well as spare parts sectors in Kano. The Kofar Ruwa market which is bigger than the biggest market in Owerri is populated by the Igbos. She did not know all these.

When i had issues with an Okada rider in Onisha, i called one man whom i assumed was learned. He ruled in favour of the rider without even listening to my story. When i protested, he said; "no be so una brothers dey do us for Lagos?"

The literacy level may be higher in South western Nigeria but the situation is not any better.
One vegetable seller once complained to me at the Oja Oba market in Akure that the Hausas were taking over the business. They sell cheap onions. She wished they would be sent parking. Little did she know that the Yorubas own the mechanic village in Sokoto. She did not know that her tribesmen are very senior lecturers in Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria.

It's natural for people to be biased when ethnicity is involved. That's not entirely a bad thing. When Ghana played Germany in the world cup, an African will naturally support the Ghanaians.

What is wrong is sacrificing common sense on the alter of ethnicity. A wrong act should be wrong anywhere no matter who is involved. If an Igbo princess steals, she should be condemned in the north as well as the east and by her own tribesmen as well.
Truth must not be a function of who's involved.

-Mark Ademola Israel
#MyThought