The Concourse – 22.09.2025
By Soney Antai
Akwa Ibom @ 38: A reflection
You are probably familiar with the saying that ‘birds of a feather flock together.’ Never mind the unconscious polemicists who tell you with some sense of alpha knowledge that the saying is rather, ‘Birds of the same feather flock together.’ It’s actually an old English saying of an unknown birthday and means that people with similar concerns, experiences, interests, or background tend to gravitate towards one another. That is generally true, and kindred to a similar one straight from the Book, to the effect that two cannot walk together except they agree, which is why we also have, ‘show me show friend and I will tell you who you are.’
It is in the character of idioms to be loquacious, yet it is always on target when used appropriately. Yes, it is not for nothing that the Igbo say that proverbs are the oil with which words are eaten, and I would add, swallowed and digested, otherwise there would be chaos in the guts.
As I write this, Akwa Ibom is in a celebratory mood to mark its 38 birthday; and Nigeria too for her 65th birthday. In spite of our human-fuelled failures, we have reason to celebrate, not our leaders’ achievements, but in spite of them. God’s goodness and kindness have been awesome towards us.
It is not that those we call our leaders are not trying, but that their utmost is directed at their self perpetuation and elongation at the expense of the rest of us. Most of them have the capacity to do better, but they are unwilling to do so. This does not exculpate the masses of our people who are critical of the higherups because they don’t have the opportunity to get there, and if they did, would not fare any better. Why is this the case?
For most of humanity, individuality often stands in the way of the collective. Our first love comes to ourselves. A bit beyond that is our immediate family, if we are fortunate to have them; and then our village, local government area, state and nation, in that order in most instances. While this is generally healthy to maintain cohesion and defend group spaces, it becomes a problem when we overshoot ourselves, even under the guise of patriotism, because excessive self-love and perpetuation often lead to ethnicism, racism, or some other extremism. But there are underlying challenges we often do not readily realise. If we do realise them, then we could be better placed to relate with most of the people around us. This is because in spite of their seeming centrifugal nature, yet they are as centripetal as life makes them.
It is common knowledge that Nigerians who meet outside their country of origin tend to bond without thinking of the ethnic tension back in their home country. There, every Nigerian seems to see the other simply as a fellow Nigerian. However, if the same Nigerians were to meet within their homeland, they would most probably see themselves through the binoculars of religion and ethnicity.
While two of us from different ethnic groups think in terms of differences within the country, within our own ethnic enclaves, we see cleavages of who belongs to the majority ethnic group, who belongs to a different state, though of the same ethnic roots. Within our states, we tend to see ourselves through the lenses of the local areas we originate from. Incidentally, within the local government area, there are also dividing lines of clans, wards, villages, extended families and then nuclear families. And as you would most probably notice now, even in our extended families, we break up into nuclear families. And If you think this trend ends there, you are wrong. Even among siblings, you have uterine siblings as opposed to siblings of the same father. Beyond this, we have married couples, who are supposed to be closest to one another, but that again is not always the case. We could go on until we arrive as the individual.
The individual is not singular after all. They do not always agree within themselves, and that is where you have such statements as, “I dont know what came over me; I am utterly sorry, I didnt mean to do it; if only I had known, I would not do it.”
The whole shebang of this is that in this season of celebrating our 38th anniversary as a state, and 65th as a nation-state, we could ponder over these self-propelled cleavages, cracks, disagreements and discrimination on the basis of where we come from, where we worship, what our economic status is, among others. We should be disciplined enough to accommodate the feelings of others, disagree, but not be disagreeable, apologise where we are wrong and remember that none of chose who our parents should be or where we should be born. One thing should be uppermost in our minds, we are all humans with similar DNA, which makes otherisation unnecessary. We have one place to meet at our own differently appointed times: death. So, what we are on earth maybe no be as important as who we are. We must, therefore, live our lives in the light of eternity. Will we?
Happy anniversary Akwa Ibom and Nigeria, and may your path be prosperous, going forward!