SOON after the disparate states of the Italian peninsula were unified to create a single nation on March 17, 1861, Massimo Taparelli, the Marquess of Azeglio, popularly called Massimo D’Azeglio, a Piedmontese-Italian statesman, famously remarked: “We have made Italy, now we have to make Italians.”

D’Azeglio, who was Prime Minister of Sardinia, was worried about the fate of Italy, which had just become a nation-state, but his famous quip aeons ago resonates loudly in today’s Nigeria.

It is easier to create a country than to unite the citizens around an overarching worldview that defangs rather than fan the embers of ethnic and religious discord.

In her book, “The Pinocchio Effect: On Making Italians, 1860-1920,” Suzanne Stewart-Steinberg, assistant professor of Italian studies and comparative literature at Brown University, explored all the ways that identity was constructed through newly formed attachments, voluntary and otherwise, to the young nation – Italy.

Taking as her guiding metaphor the character of Pinocchio — a national icon made famous in 1881 by the eponymous children’s book, Stewart-Steinberg argued that just like the renowned puppet, modern Italians were caught in a complex interplay between freely chosen submission and submission demanded by an outside force.

That is the same complex interplay that Nigerians are caught in today, so much so that 110 years after Nigeria came into being with the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern protectorates by Lord Lugard, there are hardly Nigerians.

That is the country’s bane. The British made Nigeria but we have failed to make Nigerians. When it suits them, Nigerian leaders preach patriotism. Most times, they stretch their duplicity by quoting the historic words of former U.S. President John F. Kennedy in his inaugural address: “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country,” which challenged every American to contribute in some way to the public good and it was not difficult for Americans who perceived the sincerity of purpose to rally round their leader for common good.

But here in Nigeria, the leeches who masquerade as leaders even when they mouth such rhetoric fail to put their words into action. The inability of Nigerian leaders, across board, to walk their talk by practising what they preach is the primary reason why the country is plumbing the depths of misery.

Because Nigerian leaders talk the talk every time but don’t care a hoot about walking the walk, nothing is sacred. They manipulate the primordial cleavages and the country’s historic fault lines for personal aggrandizement even when they insist, as former President Muhammadu Buhari did in his August 21, 2017 national broadcast, that “Nigeria’s unity is settled and not negotiable.”

After an extended medical tourism in 2017, Buhari, unarguably the most divisive, blinkered and narrow-minded leader Nigeria has ever had, gave what was, perhaps, his most insouciant, divisive speech claiming a non-existent national consensus on Nigeria’s indivisibility.

“We shall not allow irresponsible elements to start trouble and when things get bad they run away and saddle others with the responsibility of bringing back order, if necessary with their blood,” he boasted.

Coming from a leader who elevated bigotry to an act explains why a century after, we have a Nigeria but hardly Nigerians. It is also important to remember what Buhari said on national unity in a 2021 television interview.

Asked how he intended to resolve the crisis in the South-East, Buhari’s answer was bloodcurdling.

“Well, South East em…. I was encouraged by what I heard, nobody told me, two statements from the South-South, one by elderly people – they said this time around, there will be no access to the sea. I am sure you will understand what they mean,” he told his interviewers.

“Again, the youth made the same statement and such encouraged me. So, that IPOB is just like a dot in the circle. If they want to exit, they will have no access to anywhere. And the way they are spread all over the country, having businesses, having property, I think IPOB doesn’t know what they are talking about.

“In any case, we say we will talk to them in the language they understand. We will organize the police and the military to pursue them. That is what we can do and we will do it,” he concluded leaving his interviewers dazed.

In saying that, Buhari was trying to be clever by half, pretending to be talking about IPOB when he was actually sending an unambiguous message to Ndigbo.

That was why in the eight years of his presidency, he unleashed mayhem on Ndigbo. Unfortunately, President Bola Tinubu has continued on the same trajectory, refusing to politically resolve the Nnamdi Kanu conundrum even when Sunday Igboho, a Yoruba nation agitator like Kanu, is a free man. He has even submitted a petition to the British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, to consider the creation of a Yoruba nation without as much as a whimper from those who have made Kanu a prisoner of conscience.    

Such double standards are a recipe for disunity, hence the instability in Nigeria. Unity helps a society stay strong and deal with challenges better. But Nigerian leaders deliberately promote disunity and conflict, thereby failing the people who they claim to lead.

Do Nigerians want to stay together? Maybe! But that is in a country where there is equity, fairness and justice, a society that does not deliberately promote discrimination as a governance art. The reality here is that on the issue of unity, Nigerian leaders have refused to walk their talk.

Luckily, some Nigerians have taken the initiative of uniting where leaders divide, loving where leaders hate and promoting inclusiveness where leaders exclude.

And that is exactly what Mr. Lekan Ogunbanwo, a veteran broadcast journalist, who retired from the Lagos State civil service after serving as a permanent secretary for 13 years is doing with his radio station, Kwenu 93.9FM.

Penultimate Saturday, the radio station which is known for delivering a unique blend of Igbo and Pidgin content through both digital and traditional platforms, marked its one year anniversary – a celebration of its role in fostering cultural integration.

That occasion afforded Ogunbanwo, a bona fide Lagosian from Ikorodu, an opportunity to share the inspiration behind Kwenu 93.9FM, which is to promote unity and give the Igbo community a voice in Lagos.

“Before Kwenu 93.9FM, there were no stations dedicating up to seven hours daily to the Igbo culture and business in Lagos,” Ogunbanwo noted.

“Research shows that Igbos control about 60% of distributive trade in Nigeria, with 70% of this trade centred in Lagos. Today, there are between four and six million Igbos living in the state.

“We wanted to give the Igbos a platform to ensure there is no fear of Igbos ‘taking over’ Lagos… This is our country, and we must focus on what unites us rather than what divides us. Nigeria binds the Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo, and others as one people. We all have a responsibility to maintain peace and avoid misunderstandings, as chaos hampers business and growth. Promoting oneness is crucial for our progress.”

This is all it requires to make Nigerians after the British made Nigeria decades ago, a task that Nigerian leaders have refused to carry out since Independence in 1960, particularly since the end of the 30-month fratricidal war in 1970.

It is worth noting that Ogunbanwo, an authentic Lagosian, is creating maximum impact by amplifying Igbo voices, not just in Lagos but across the country, at a time when some people, most of whom are not from Lagos and cannot point at their fathers’ graves anywhere in this cosmopolitan state are ratcheting up their Igbo must quit rhetoric as an existential imperative, a desideratum of sort. 

What Lekan Ogunbanwo has done with his Kwenu 93.9FM is to walk his talk on the challenging issue of national unity. If only the leaders, including President Tinubu, can toe the line knowing full well that no amount of gaslighting, cajoling and inveigling can guarantee unity.