Why we must put an end to ethnic nationalism, By Ayodele Adio

Today, Nigeria isn’t so far away from where Yugoslavia was in 1995. Several Milosevics are promising a return to a glorious past where their ethnic group was supreme. Their playing ground is social media, and their hate mongering is gaining so much momentum that even educated cosmopolitans are being seduced. If we allow this trend to continue unchallenged, it won’t be long before there is a violent outbreak.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, a South Asian Muslim man, Mohammed Asaduzzaman, provided 500 free meals to essential service providers, as a show of gratitude for their contributions to the community. Not just that, he pushed for vaccinations for those with uncertain immigration status, acted as an interpreter for those in legal need, and supported victims of crime, according to a report in the BBC. Unsurprisingly, on 17 May, Mr Asaduzzaman was elected as the first South Asian Muslim Mayor of Brighton and Hove – a community he had lived in for 30 years, after migrating from Bangladesh.

Asaduzzaman’s victory, like that of Sadiq Khan in London and Britain’s former Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, is a triumph for multiculturalism and the beauty of representative democracy. It didn’t matter so much that Asaduzzaman was a devout Muslim or that he migrated from a country that was a British colony for 200 years. What mattered was that he had woven himself into the very fabric of the community and earned his fellow constituents’ trust.

In Nigeria, however, instead of assembling the building blocks of a stable and progressive pluralistic society, groups of vile and divisive ethnic entrepreneurs are now instigating a retreat to ethnic fascism disguised as nationalism. They abhor cosmopolitans and dream of a homogenous society. They still want democracy, but the participants and beneficiaries must be limited to their in-group members. Ostensibly, they’re motivated by a dire need to preserve their culture and a recalcitrant out-group’s erosion of their values. “Why should ‘foreigners’ be given appointments or jobs in their own land?” they query. Some even go as far as challenging the use of the English language as the lingua franca.

As Yuval Noah puts it, these groups fail to realise that “the past wasn’t a good time, and you can’t bring it back.” Yuval would go on to argue that “people who play identity politics and want to go back to the past are not creatively thinking about the future.” Despite the rise of far-right nationalists in Europe and the growing influence of religious fundamentalists in certain parts of the Middle East and the Sahel, the future is more likely to be multicultural.

How did a country that had stayed peacefully together for forty years under President Tito unravel in such a short time? Why did Sarajevo, a modern, diverse city where Serbs, Croats, and Bosniaks had lived and intermarried for several decades, give in to their worst instincts that led to their slaughtering of one another? The reason isn’t far-fetched. Milosevic had taught them how to hate their neighbour.

Notwithstanding, the rise of ultra-nationalists, ethnic supremacists, and fascist groups in Nigeria, many of whom are constantly stoking ethnic discords, are gradually sowing the seeds of a violent insurrection that could consume our nation. Young people are now being encouraged to spread hate. Others embrace bigotry as a badge of honour and vow to cleanse their region and home state of invaders who are desecrating their land. “Do not rent out your houses to them, or give your daughters to them in marriage,” they declare. Other more extreme elements have gone as far as saying, “you have no obligation as a doctor to treat a patient who is not from your tribe.” These are what the drums of violent conflict sound like. These are dangerous times.

It started similarly in Yugoslavia. A few years after the death of President Tito, a “ruthless manipulator of Serbian nationalism” – as the Guardian UK describes him – emerged on the scene. His name was Slobodan Milosevic, and he would later become the most dangerous man in Europe. In his quest for power, Milosevic made clever use of the media to spread propaganda of an imminent threat to Serbians (his ethnic group) and the need to resist those who seek to destroy their way of life. He reminded Serbians of their glorious past and promised a return to that period of greatness. Serbs believed him, and not long after, 200,000 people were killed in Bosnia, and more than 800,000 Albanians were ethnically cleansed from their homes in Kosovo.

How did a country that had stayed peacefully together for forty years under President Tito unravel in such a short time? Why did Sarajevo, a modern, diverse city where Serbs, Croats, and Bosniaks had lived and intermarried for several decades, give in to their worst instincts that led to their slaughtering of one another? The reason isn’t far-fetched. Milosevic had taught them how to hate their neighbour. He even promised a reward for that hatred, which was a Serbian nation where all their aspirations would be fulfilled. He had also convinced them to believe that members of the out-group inflicted the cause of whatever challenges they encountered. Wanting to be part of something great, they took up arms and slaughtered their fellow citizens.

…we must regulate the extremism in social media and excommunicate those who seek to sow the seeds of ethnic discord. We can do this by leaning on social media companies like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to censor bigotry and suspend accounts that promote extremism. Indeed, this will not solve the problem of mutual distrust among major ethnic tribes, nor will it magically promote love and unity. What it will do is to halt a descent into violent conflict…

Today, Nigeria isn’t so far away from where Yugoslavia was in 1995. Several Milosevics are promising a return to a glorious past where their ethnic group was supreme. Their playing ground is social media, and their hate mongering is gaining so much momentum that even educated cosmopolitans are being seduced. If we allow this trend to continue unchallenged, it won’t be long before there is a violent outbreak.

Therefore, we must regulate the extremism in social media and excommunicate those who seek to sow the seeds of ethnic discord. We can do this by leaning on social media companies like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to censor bigotry and suspend accounts that promote extremism. Indeed, this will not solve the problem of mutual distrust among major ethnic tribes, nor will it magically promote love and unity. What it will do is to halt a descent into violent conflict and provide the opportunity for the nation’s elite to do the hard work of nation-building.

There will be no return to kingdoms, so we are better off learning the lessons of multiculturalism from Brighton and Hove and shunning the destruction that ethnic nationalism guarantees.

Ayodele Adio, a media and communications strategist.