KILL ALL UNWANTED CULTURE

  

Few years ago, I was walking out of my University's microbiology laboratory after a practical class, and beside the electric switch close to the exit door I saw a notice printed on a white A4 paper with black ink, it read; KILL ALL UNWANTED CULTURE.

It took me a few minutes to recall that culture in microbiology is a term used in explaining the artificial growing of microorganisms, the notice was actually reminding the laboratory users not to leave used cultures lying carelessly in the laboratory. But on the other hand culture also means the way of life of a people; this includes their tribe, arts, custom, religion, language, folklore, myth, legend, and so on.

As I entered one of the campus shuttles to head to the hostel, I made that notice a subject of my meditation. I thought of the meaning, I, or any other person would have read to that notice if it was pasted somewhere else like a bus park, church, mosque, club house, street, an office, or any other public place.

I thought of the extent of good killing or rather eliminating of our cultural heritage would do us, or if it will do us any good at all. This made me turn ma reflections to the odds culture (precisely tribalism) has brought us. It is evident that one factor that is threatening our cooperate existence as Nigerians after our Religious and Political differences is our cultural diversity. If we look at the situation in Nigeria holistically, one will see that if all the foreign religions (Christianity, Islam et al) are wiped out from Nigeria, there will still be no guaranty of absolute peace and serenity.

Over the years, Tribalism and cultural differences have had a great negative impact on major sectors in Nigeria, this can be seen in what is happening in the political arena, today every politician's plan is to get into power and exult his/her people and when a sane politician try to break away from this wrong and engage in even development, He will eventually win the hatred of he's tribesmen.

Another sector which cultural differences have helped in crippling is the Educational sector, in Nigeria today, when it comes to gaining admission into most higher institution and even some secondary schools, your last name is of more importance than your UTME score or any other qualification you bring forward, this constitutes one of the major reasons why I am strongly against the scrapping of UTME, because if UTME is eventually scrapped and the system still remain as corrupt as it is presently, then it will take a miracle for a child  bearing 'PAM' to obtain admission into any University in Nigeria that is not in Plateau state.

In the labour market the story is no different, we’ve all heard or seen where people with better qualification and experience are discriminated against because of their cultural identity.

But despite the negative effect of our cultural diversity on our cooperate existence as Nigerians, it is irrational to try to eliminate it as one of Nigeria's prolific Author; Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie rightly stated and I quote “...my point is that the only authentic identity for the African is the tribe...I am Nigerian Because a white man created Nigeria and gave me that identity. I am black because the white man constructed black to be as different as possible from his white. But I was Igbo before the white man came.”

This explains why many Nigerian parents at home(Nigeria) and in the Diaspora try very hard to instill in their children their cultural heritage and attributes, they do this by teaching the growing  child about their ethnicity, the norms of their people, their dialect, their myths, their beliefs, their proverbs and all the likes. This in it self is not bad way of bringing up a child, but when these teachings are being mixed up with sentiments and trying to make one's culture seem superior to all other culture, that is when the real problem sets in, the same problem Emperor Haile Selassie was talking about when he said  “...Until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned, everywhere is war and until there are no longer first-class and second-class citizens of any nation, until the color of a man's skin is of no more significance than the color of his eyes. And until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all without regard to race, there is war. And until that day, the dream of lasting peace, world citizenship, rule of international morality, will remain but a fleeting illusion to be pursued, but never attained” 

From the foregoing, it is evident that culture as a whole is as important as every other aspect of every Nigerian's life, so it is both diabolical and unfair to downgrade or downplay any ones cultural ethics. Instead of killing all 'unwanted' culture, we should actually KILL ALL UNWANTED CULTURAL SENTIMENTS AND SUPERIORITY.