Quizzing your tribe & religion means Questioning our peace & unity

 

Happy 2025 Independence Day, fellow Nigerians. I had concluded this article a week ago and was searching for an appropriate image (not my usual picture) that would represent both its message and the significance of Nigeria’s Independence Day. Then, out of sheer coincidence, I stumbled on a message that read “I am a Nigerian. My tribe comes 2nd” at the back of a hooded white top of a fellow traveller at London Heathrow Airport en route Abuja on Friday, 26th September 2025. Gleefully, and like a man struck by love at first sight, I dashed to this torchbearer, who turned out to be Ambassador Otunba Adejare Adegbenro, to introduce myself and ask for his permission to take a picture - a request to which he passionately & humbly obliged before we exchanged contacts and boarded the plane to Nigeria.

Of course, I had thought it fitting to dedicate my piece on Nigeria’s 65th Independence Day commemoration to discouraging a long-standing habit that unknowingly destroys our peace and undermines the unity we desire as Nigerians. Sixty-five years after independence, I find it disturbing that some mundane requests are still institutionalized, not merely within informal spaces, but also within formal circles.  In today’s Nigeria, where one’s tribe and religion are yet compulsory inquiries when filling an application form for civil service employment, some private sector jobs, military enrolment, and so forth, what have the requesting authorities done with these twin data sets? And how have our answers promoted unity among the hundreds of Nigerian tribes and millions of Nigerians of different faiths? Methinks that our political, bureaucratic, traditional, religious, and thought leaders need to start asking ourselves honest questions – how many countries in the world do official documents request applicants’ or workers’ clan or creed in the 21st century?

It appears that the older generation of Nigerian leaders finds it more convenient to conjure unity as rhetoric, flag it as a mere political campaign strategy, sing it as a chant embedded in our national anthem & pledge, and throw in a theoretical conjecture. In contrast, my peers and the younger generations of Nigerians are, in fact, persuaded to foster a truly harmonious Nigeria through the timeliness and necessity of this piece, which practically situates the growing disunity in the country within two prevailing forms of social identity.  These classification tags, which official documents require us to use and provide feedback on, are, in my view, subtle reinforcements of disunity in a pluralistic nation like ours.  

Does it ever strike us that tribal sentiments are quietly inferred from the requested fields of “State of Origin” on government application papers? Do we need to begin re-considering the usefulness of the Federal Character Principle, which, on a cursory note, appears well-intentioned? When reviewed critically, however, it may be counterproductive to tribal harmony, as it serves as a constant reminder of our clannish differences and tribal fault lines. It portends the inherent competition for “equality” in the sharing of financial and natural resources as the primary reason for our cohabitation.  

First, let’s talk religion and learn that ‘many’ Nigerians do not subscribe to a public display of religious affinity, suggesting that its non-disclosure may unite my beloved country. I recall my weekly public question-and-answer sessions, which drew between 3,500 and 4,000 participants in the buildup to the 2023 Presidential elections. The engaging series was titled “23 Presiding Questions for 2023 Presidential Quests” Their Ambitions Verus Our Convictions”. Permit me to relay the background to Question 14 of the series and the poser itself. “Nigeria may be dominated by Christians and Muslims, but these two have no superior right to religion than traditional worshippers or even atheists. A secular nation such as ours is an embodiment of all religions and should neither discriminate nor be seen to do so, especially if unhealthy religious competition & oppression are to be discarded. As a matter of fact, religion ought to be an entirely private matter between a person and his/her God. Therefore, to enact a new social order of true inter-faith tolerance & harmony in Nigeria, our next President come 2023 should consider parliamentary bills and executive policies that favour an outright ban of the following needless religion-inclined social practices that I call “Public Display of Religious Affinity” - Incessant noise pollution by Churches and Mosques through the erection of speakers outside all worship centres; Existence and Public funding of National Hajj Commission & National Christian Pilgrim Commission and government funding of religious pilgrimages; Official ‘opening and closing’ prayers at government functions and in government offices by Christians and Muslims; Deployment of tax-payers’ funds by government to the construction of Christian and Islamic worship centres; Other unnecessary forms of “Public Display of Religious Affinity” that breed inter-religious tension, disharmony etc. Will you support that the coming President leads the process to put a stop to all the aforementioned?” Friends, out of the thousands of responses to this post, the majority replied, “I am in support.” I imagine a Nigeria where we pay less attention to the God or gods that others serve.

Secondly, let’s discuss ethnicity and the rigidification of this clannish identity, learning how both official and unofficial quietness about it fosters unity elsewhere. I recollect my days as Deputy Director, Medical Services at Ondo State Primary Health Care Development Board in Ondo State in 2015, when a ‘Rwandese’ was hired as an external Consultant in the pilot of the Performance-Based Financing (PBF) model in primary healthcare under the Nigeria State Health Investment Project (NSHIP). The gentleman and I had a chat one day, and I innocently inquired about his tribe in Rwanda. For over 30 minutes, he deflected my question with gentle smiles despite my insistence, till we parted. Weeks went by, and I stumbled on him again. I referred him to my ‘presumed harmless’ but unanswered question. Still, he refused again, this time with some rhetorical questions about the importance of his tribe, given that he had already identified himself as a citizen of Rwanda. This detribalized Rwandese and patriotic of unity then sermonized on the colossal division that such “unnecessary” categorisations pose within a country, before taking me on a tragic history of April-July 1994 in Rwanda, between two major tribes. I was schooled and initiated into an acculturated Nigerian space by his conclusive notification of the legal prohibition of any Rwandese from identifying as Hutu or Tutsi, publicly or privately, in the spirit of national reconciliation, unity, and peace. And to date, according to an article by Holocaust and Genocide Studies, College of Liberal Arts, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, United States, “Ethnic identities such as Hutus and Tutsi have been made illegal”. Nigerians, I am convinced of the necessity of regulating the discourse of tribe both in official and public circles. I imagine a Nigeria where your tribe and mine are no longer necessary inquiries.

As I conclude this Independence Day write-up, I submit that clan and creed are two needless symbols of identity that a pluralistic and secular nation seeking genuine forms of peaceful coexistence and true harmony should begin to de-emphasize, at least, in all its official dealings. Suppose we are to move away from the divisive threats that have transcended generations of Nigerians before, during, and after the 1967-1970 civil war. Can we officially adopt the response “I’m a Nigerian” for rudimentary inquiries about state of Origin? Can we downplay the Federal Character principle? Can the system start to mind its business and foster unity by not asking us? I hope that Nigeria’s 109 Senators and 360 members of the House of Representatives will be enlightened by this article to consider making laws against quizzing a Nigerian’s tribe and religion, knowing that such needless inquiry can question a nation’s unity. Let our ‘confessed’ tribes and religion be Nigeria!

Dr. Adetolu Ademujimi is a Medical Doctor, Health Finance Specialist, Author, Reformer, Coach, Public Policy expert, and social entrepreneur who can be reached in Abuja via adetoluademujimi@gmail.com 

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