According to her, every Nigerian is guilty at one point or the other of tribalism, suggesting that we can only fight tribalism by living as one.
“Tribalism has been and is still being practiced today. Lagos is home for everyone, our generation knows better too. Let’s not let this come in between us. The Oba’s statement was ignorant but do we really blame him? We all at some point in our lives have been on the receiving end of acts of tribalism. Let’s take out the tension and be real with each-other.
“Our parents’ generation practiced tribalism openly and they were not corrected. In some homes, befriending people from other tribes was frowned on, marrying from another tribe is still being frowned on today, tribalism even from people of the same tribe is real too. What we need to do is educate and not instigate. I had Igbo friends growing up; I was the only Yoruba girl in the midst of Igbo girls. Did they make fun of me? Sometimes but it wasn’t out of malice. We lived, we loved and we are still very close. I have had a friend’s mum tell me “haaa omo ondo ni e? Mi o mo ooo, a kin ba ondo sore” meaning – I’m from Ondo? She didn’t know…. If she had, she won’t let her daughter befriend me cos they don’t like Ondo people, Ondo and Ijebu don’t mix… I was shocked. She went ahead and said “You Ondo people are wicked,” Toke wrote.
She went ahead to advise her fans against tribalism and also to vote for who they wish to vote for.
“Please educate people around you. Vote who you want, vote your conscience but please stop the tribalism comments. Our beauty is in our diversity. It is a distraction, don’t fall for it. Let’s all live as one.”
Nicely said! You go gurl...
We Nigerians are guilty of this act. Although it's unintended! We are made to believe that just cos mr A is from japan he's not supposed to marry or av friends from let's say d uk. Like I said unintended because we've always done it we never get to recognise that it's wrong and as d yrs go by we unintentionally install the belief to d new generation. Stopping it will be very hard cos most people are so used to it that dey don't identify it as wrong. There's a fine line between Being "racist & being "tribalistic
ReplyDeleteNice one Toke.
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