Education
UNN partners NGO to seek ways of ending ethnicity, tribalism amongst Africa states
By Usman Godwin
A non governmental organization, NGO, on the aegis of ‘Grace Uzoma Okonkwo foundation’ has partnered the departments of English and Literary Studies, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and Department of English, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, Igbariam, to seek ways of ending ethnicity and tribalism existing amongst Africa states, specifically Nigeria.
The group, in a communiqué issued at the 3-day International Conference held at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, said that the conference was convened to find proactive solutions and measures to end the multifaceted problems from ethnicity and tribalism in Africa.
The communiqué which was signed by Prof. Florence Orabueze and made available to newsmen in Enugu, emphasized that the issues of ethnicity and tribalism have trickled down to higher institutions, and that there is need for the researchers and scholars to find proactive solutions and measures to end the problems.
The Nations News Nigeria reports that the 5th international conference with the theme: ‘ETHNICITY, TRIBE AND THE QUEST FOR NATIONAL COHESION IN THE AFRICAN STATES: MULTIDISCIPLINARY REFLECTIONS’ was attended by prominent Nigerians, thousands of researchers and scholars from all parts of the country and in diaspora.
Orabueze explained that the theme was informed by the need to address the core issues that perennially impede cohesion and development at regional and national levels among the African states, specifically, Nigeria.
She stated that Nigeria’s polarizations stemmed from the exploitations of the country’s ethno-regional differences for political gains, and informed the team that the conference was meant to harness ideas from scholars and researchers in different disciplines towards dissecting the ethnic and tribal-based issues.
Earlier, in a remark by the Acting Vice Chancellor of UNN, Prof. Oguejiofo Ujam represented by the HOD of English & Literary Studies, Prof. Stella Okoye-Ugwu, welcomed the dignitaries and the conference participants to the university, and expressed his delight with the conference theme, which he explained was very apt, topical at this critical time in Africa, where several countries are waging ethnic-based wars. As he put it,
“No doubt, the diversities in the ethnic and tribal configurations of African states play critical roles in the complexities that manifest at the political terrains in Africa. This explains why the conversations here in this conference should aim to chart the way forward out of the complexities that are generated by the issues”.
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In a keynote address by the former Minister of Power and the 12th vice chancellor of UNN, Chinedu Nebo said the theme of the 5th conference of GUOF was apt, particularly in this era when African nations are undergoing political transformations.
According to him: “Ethnicity and tribalism are the two terminal cancers that have strangulated the nations of Africa decades after their respective independence” and further noted that ethnicity and tribalism have overarching influences on all the facets of African societies, and thus, recommended “meritocracy, inclusion, unity in diversity should be upheld as the core abiding principles for governance”.
The Chairman of the event, who is the Director of Gender and Development Policy Centre, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Prof Nkadi Onyegegbu, remarked that the conference would offer a platform for exhaustive dissections of the underlying socio-cultural, economic and political nuances of ethnicity and tribes in the African states and the hope of revitalizing the traditional African nationhood prior to western colonization.
She states further that the conference theme was laudable, remarkable and apt especially, in Nigeria, and even right now in the higher institutions of learning of which University of Nigeria, Nsukka, is part of.
Prof. Onyegegbu noted that the significance of academic conferences were to critique the theme of the conference from different perspectives with a view to proffering the panacea that would generate practical frameworks towards a better human society, adding that the 5th conference of GUOF would achieve all these.
Speaking, the LOC Chairman, Prof. Victor Ukaogo, in his welcome address, said that ethnicity and tribalism are the major problems of Nigeria that impede its development, since independence. And he believed that the views espoused by the participants would contribute to a new beginning for Nigeria.
Some of the guest lecturers at the conference; Prof.Jacob Kehinde Olupona, Prof. Jacob Olupona posited that ethnicity and tribalism could be demystified in every facet of our lives, as individuals and as a nation.
Also, the lead paper by Prof. Saša Božić of the Department of Sociology, University of Zadar, Croatia, titled “Divided Societies and the Process of Deglobalization: New Tracts towards Social Integration?” examined the problems associated with deglobalization which had been held among economic and political analysts as the way out of the issues emanating from globalization.
The Grace Uzoma Okonkwo foundation, however, presented a prestigious PILLAR OF PEACE AWARD to some prominent Nigerians; Prof. Chinedu Nebo, Prof. Polycarp Chigbu, the immediate past Ag. Vice-Chancellor of University of Nigeria, Prof. Jacob Olupona, Prof. Nkadi Onyegegbu, Prof. Saša Božić, Prof. Ifeanyichukwu Abada and Hamzat Lawal among others
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