Nigeria’s worst affliction isn’t just corruption or bad governance—it’s tribalism. This poisonous undercurrent undermines progress in every sphere: politics, education, employment, and social trust. We’ve turned ethnicity into a qualification, relegating competence to a secondary concern.
Consider this: you know your own brother is underqualified, unreliable, a square peg in a round hole. Yet you’ll still champion him for a position because he shares your surname or hometown. That single decision doesn’t just cost you personally—it erodes the very foundation of national productivity.
The statistics are grim. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, youth unemployment in Nigeria ballooned to 53.4% in Q4 2022. That’s over half of our young workforce out of formal economic opportunities. But it gets worse—figures from early 2024 suggest underemployment and idle graduates number in the tens of millions. How many bright minds never get their shot because they checked the wrong ethnic box?
Look at our political history: coups in 1966, counter-coups, the Biafra War—all fuelled by ethnic mistrust. Today, elections aren’t fought over policies—they’re ethnic scorecards. The mantra isn’t “who can deliver,” but “who is our own?”
We boast of being the “Giant of Africa,” yet we lack basic infrastructure. We import what we should make—even at home, power plants only produce about 4,000MW against a potential of over 12,000MW. Tribalism strangles investment and stifles drive. Every time competence loses to kinship, innovation dies.
Let’s talk real numbers. Nigeria has over 200 million people across more than 250 ethnic groups. If harnessed, that diversity could power unprecedented innovation. But instead of unity, we weaponize ethnicity. As of mid-2025, our combined external debt hit around US$96 billion (about ₦150 trillion). Where is that money going? Not into industrial transformation—because the priority is loyalty, not results.
In the corporate world, tribalism is a death sentence. Yet in public offices, in universities, in NGOs, we see nepotistic appointments squeezing out the best. A World Bank study shows countries that practice meritocracy see up to 30% higher GDP per capita growth over a decade compared to those entrenched in patronage systems. Nigeria? We limp along with less than 2% GDP growth per annum.
Fixing this requires more than slogans. It demands structural reform: transparent hiring, blind recruitment, decentralization of power, and civil service rooted in credentials. We must nurture a national identity superseding ethnic cleavages. Because if local loyalty eclipses national interest, there’s no future, only echoes of failed potential.
Tribalism isn’t just a societal ill—it’s a slow, lethal cancer. It kills unity, retards innovation, and suffocates progress. Until we uproot it and replace it with merit, fairness, and competence, we’ll stay trapped in this cycle.
Do we want progress—or do we want “our own” dragging us into oblivion?
