According to the report from the Nigerian Tribune, Nigeria’s former Ambassador to The Philippines, Dr Yemi Farounbi highlighted the missed opportunities in harnessing the unique strengths and contributions of the country’s diverse ethnic groups.
Referencing Nnamdi Azikiwe, a prominent Nigerian nationalist, Farounbi suggested that Nigeria could have flourished if it had effectively utilized the various cultural attributes instead of attempting to homogenize them.
This push for uniformity, according to Farounbi, has resulted in a loss of creativity, ingenuity, and innovation, ultimately leading to widespread laziness across ethnic lines.
He lamented that communities that once prided themselves on self-sufficiency, such as the Igbo, Fulani, and Yoruba, have been reduced to seeking handouts, exemplified by the need to queue for basic food supplies like rice, beans, garri, and corn, despite Nigeria’s abundant agricultural resources.
According to Yemi Farounbi, “There is no ethnic unit that hasn’t a peculiar contribution. That is what Azikiwe was saying. If we harnessed all of that, Nigeria would have been different. But what did we do? We are equalising everybody. We wanted everybody to think alike, we wanted everybody to sleep in the same direction and we were unable to tap into the creativity, the ingenuity and the innovativeness that were characteristic of the times. So we all became lazy. The Igbo man would never beg for money; the Fulani would never beg for money and the Yoruba were not beggars. But today, everybody has been equalized into beggars. They now have to line up for rice, beans and garri and for agbado (corn) of all things! Cassava will grow anywhere in Nigeria and until recently, Nigeria was the largest producer of cassava but now we have to line up for garri!”