Nigeria’s first lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, has unveiled the One Nigeria/Unity Fabric, scheduled to be worn to celebrate the country’s Independence Day anniversary on October 1st.
The move seeks to promote unity in diversity – a sense of oneness among the different ethnic nationalities – as Nigeria celebrates 110 years of its forced union of peoples holding different values and worldviews by the British colonial government.
Lord Lugard, the British Governor General, saw to the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern Protectorates of Nigeria. He fashioned a flag to symbolise the forced unity of people who were mostly alien to themselves.
The two green bands in the Nigerian flag symbolise Nigeria’s vast arable land and natural wealth, while the white band symbolises peace and unity. The two uninspiring colours have since faded in significance with farmers fleeing farms because of murderers of various brands, food crisis, increasing desertification, and the country knowing more civil wars and internal conflicts than international wars. Nigeria has more soldiers fighting aggression within than without.
Howbeit, the First Lady said, “I believe this (fabric) concept is a unifying one, where we can infuse our cultural diversity and break down tribal barriers to identify as a people of one nation.”
Mrs Tinubu’s thinking is not new. It fits into a trend of deploying symbolic unity to solve deeply rooted differences among people.
One Nigeria Function: From NOA, NICO’s Discretion to Tinubu’s Decision
So much for Remi’s remix of our country’s pristine symbols and reckoning of their fading significance. So much for Remi’s reconciliatory overtures in spending N25 million to curate a coloured interpretation of the state of our united diversity.
But funding such a noble idea is not her “official” role. It is the duty of the National Orientation Agency (NOA) and the National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO), under the Ministry of Information and National Orientation.
Promoting Mrs Remi Tinubu’s new One Nigeria philosophy, fabric, flag, and fashion fit is the official duty of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), founded in 1993, for “fostering national unity and development by enlightening and engaging citizens with accurate and timely information.”
Besides the NOA, the National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO) also pays staff to instruct on the pedagogy and practice of unity and peace in Nigeria. The institute boasts of the capacity to instruct patriotic First Ladies (and First Gentlemen) like Mrs Remi Tinubu in the “handling of Nigerian cultural realities, philosophy, and practices which are relevant for economic advancements, national integration, peace, and unity.”
But Mrs Remi Tinubu now shows more discretion than NICO on the best way to fabricate Nigeria’s modern unity through her novel “Unity Fabric.”
Is it coincidental that Mrs Remi Tinubu is running her national unity show this year – the first time in the last five years that one First Lady’s spending will surpass NICO’s spending?
Only the NOA, among the three federal cost centres, kept its first place in terms of the amount spent on its work, as of 20 September 2024. However, the NOA recorded the greatest decline in its real spending or costs incurred in finding peace and unity, according to Dataphyte’s analysis of data sourced from govspend, a repository of Federal Government expenditures.
When spending levels measure the effectiveness of a project, it is unlikely that the NOA, led by Mr Lanre Issa-Onilu, and the NICO, led by Mr Otunba Biodun Ajiboye, can match their achievements in previous years.
This is because the two agencies have spent less this nine months than last year, and the Naira has been further devalued since President Tinubu assumed power.
But Mrs Oluremi Tinubu has incurred more costs to Nigeria these nine months than last year.