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embraced. A Nigerian identity
that is self-aware ot its creolisation, rather than maintaining
the
illusion of a "multi-ethnic" patchwork, would not only be an
exciting national project, but truer
to the emerging state of affairs.
This does not mean that ethnic identities are consigned to the
dustbin of history. Some may
disappear but for most, the linguistic
heritage will be decoupled from narrow ethnic identity. On a
practical
level, identifying Nigeria as a creolising society may go some way to
producing a change
in how power is shared across the country--the
insistence on federal character, which has led to the
demand for state
creation to the point of absurdity, may be diminished if Nigerians
could
increasingly see that the manifest ethnic identity of a minister
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/nigeria does
not directly benefit them, and in fact, very
often, somebody ostensibly
from your ethnic group has cross-cutting loyalties to other groups;
more
pressingly, their concerns could become more about where they actually
live, than whether
their ethnic group is perceived to be getting a share
of the "national cake". Certainly, if we
encouraged active
intermixing and creolisation, individual states would be compelled to
create
passports to "citizenship" for those considered
non-indigenes, and ultimately abolish the outdated
idea ot indigenes and
non-indigenes entirely.
Perhaps the word Naija best expresses the possibilities of
reshaping Nigeria's identity and politics.
The word, originally
drawn from pidgin, is widely used by a broad cross-section of society.
It
implies that the business of living in Nigeria should be approached
less through the lens of ethnic
affiliation and benefit, and more in
terms of efficiency and efficacy. These Naija speakers may be or
speak
any of Nigeria's identities or languages but their lived reality of
Nigeria is in sharp contrast
to the old view of a country of three parts
bisected by the river Niger. Their country is one richly
varied whole,
which spreads its crcolised culture across the African continent and the
world. It's a
view that Nigeria's elite should adopt.
Ultimately, creolising is a process that's happening whether
the
Nigerian state and its custodians like it or not, but it would be great
if they got with the
programme.
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http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Creole(ly)+Nigerian.-a0405677213