Tribalism has had a huge effect on the development of our country Nigeria. The issue of tribalism dates back decades and it has grown increasingly worse today. Tribalism like corruption and other social vices has eaten deep into all the sectors of the nation. It has had an expression not only in the different sectors of the nation but also in human relationships.
In the political sector, for instance, you discover that once an influential person gets into an influential position, he or she begins to put people who come from his tribe, in different positions of authority.
Now, whether the person is skilled for the job or not, remains irrelevant. All they are concerned about is bringing their tribes person on board and this in itself is wrong because when such people are brought in, they won’t live up to expectations.
Tribalism can be seen as a major problem in every human society especially multicultural society with many ethnic groups. Many ethnic groups feel superior to one tribe in one way or the other.
Tribalism and sectionalism are indeed pathetic in Yobe state. The dominant languages in the area are Ngizim, Bolewa, Kare Kare, and Kanuri.
The aforementioned groups are the major problem in our dear state that has made many people lose their political seats, and some grabbed the advantage of this to win their election.
Yobe State based on social statistics comprises about six or more tribes that practice different types of cultures and ideologies.
In an on-growing state like Yobe, everyone will expect that unity and love will be shared equally between the minor people of the state but frankly there are some fishy issues which have stuck on the neck of our people and that issue is the massive negative influence of tribalism in our social, economic or political activities.
As we critically observed, our state could never move forward unless we overcome the problem of the negative influence of tribalism among society and show the people that we all belong to one race.
The negative influence of tribalism in the socio-political and economic development of the state has brought many damages that cannot be easily described. For instance, whenever the government intends to provide some jobs, projects, or other things of import to the state, the key members of the government start to push on to get that development only for the people in their zones or tribes without considering the whole state.
Damaturu is the capital city of Yobe and every citizen of the state wants to see it developed but it’s not only Damaturu that has a developmental need as we have many more local government areas that also need the government’s focus.
There are so many ways to bring tribalism to an end in our state, and the best way is to have a deeper understanding between ourselves and work together without allowing tribal differences to divide us.
Also, the government needs to start practicing equality between the people of the state without showing any favoritism.
Likewise, we need to politically correct our ideas of voting for a person that belongs to us and change to vote for someone who is capable and well deserved.
Thank you Mr.kaseem