WAZOBIA AND THE NEW NIGERIA -Lauretta Onochie

🇳🇬 "Wa" is the Yoruba word for "Come"
"Zo" is the Hausa word for "Come"
"Bia" is the Igbo word for "Come"

🇳🇬 Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo are the three dominant cultures and languages in the former three geo-political zones of Nigeria, namely, Western, Northern and Eastern Nigeria. 

🇳🇬 The word "Come" in this context, denotes invitation to friendship and brotherliness. Invitation to share. Invitation to work together as a people. 

🇳🇬 This explains the reason why our founding fathers had mutual respect for one another. They were selfless in their pursuit of National development as they saw the whole of Nigeria as their constituency. 

🇳🇬 Nigerians moved freely to other parts of Nigeria to settle without fear of being attacked. My grand father who was the Hospital Administrator in Zaria told me that when they first arrived in the North, many southerners could not cope with the intense heat of the sun as the weather was sharply different from the Western region where he came from. 

🇳🇬 But the Northerners kept pots of clean water on the streets to support their brothers and sisters from the East and west, to cope with the harsh weather. 

🇳🇬 Those were the days when WaZoBia fostered oneness, unity, brotherliness and nationality.

🇳🇬 But then, the British that gave us three regions, three languages and three cultures, did not take into cognisance the fact that there were over 250 other ethnic minorities in Nigeria, all now seeking recognition and independence from the dominant one in their region. 

🇳🇬 For instance, the Anioma, Ijaw, Urhobo, Isoko, Itsekiri, Edo, Ishan, Kukuruku, etc., were part of Western Nigeria and were classified as "Yoruba". 

🇳🇬 The Nupe, Gwari, Birom, Fulani, Idoma, Igbirra, Jukun, etc. were classified as "Hausa". 

🇳🇬 The Efik, Kalabari, Boki, Ejagham, Bekwarra, Ibibio, Anang, etc were all classified as Igbo. 

🇳🇬 At first, it did not matter. But when the ethnic minorities began to feel marginalised by their dominant regional ethnic groups, they began to agitate for recognition. This marginalisation was the beginning of tribalism in our once WaZoBia nation. 

🇳🇬 In the 80s, in order to stem the rise of tribalism, the word WaZoBia was used in a national reawakening campaign. But it has not really yielded its desired goals as bigoted and selfish leaders, continually make concerted effort to maintain a "Divide and Rule" tactic, to cover their corrupt practices against all of us in our nation. 

🇳🇬 At no time in our history as a nation, than now, do we have another opportunity to embrace WaZoBia. We now have a leader and a patriot, Pres. Muhammadu Buhari who has made most of his appointments from minority ethnic groups that had never been given the chance to have a sense of belonging. He is also keen on bringing needed developmental projects to all parts of Nigeria. He has shown this by refusing to assent to a budget from which projects for the South South and South East were expunged. 

🇳🇬 Although Nigerians are still divided along ethnic and religious lines, but once the hard-work of the President Buhari administration begins to positively impart on the lives of all Nigerians, we all will have a feeling of a sense of belonging. 

🇳🇬 Nationality and patriotism will be rekindled and WaZoBia will be fully entrenched, again. 
God Bless Nigeria.
God bless us, everyone,
Lauretta Onochie 
@Laurestar

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