Saro-Wiwa was an outspoken opponent of Royal Dutch Shells presence in Ogoniland and of the governments involvement in local politics. The lack of competent personnel, the canalization of all energies into the struggle for power, debilitating corruption and other social evils have arisen because we have ignored the ethnic nature of our society, choosing to pretend that the ethnic groups do not exist and stubbornly refusing to build our house on the strong fundamentals of ethnicity. This may sound rather perverse because it has always been argued that our strength lies in unity and that tribalism is the bane of our nation. This brings me immediately to the difference between ethnicity and ethnocentrism.
Ethnicity is the fact of the ethnic group.
It poses no danger to the nation. Ethnocentrism can be combated. Ethnicity is permanent. It came about as a result of the disastrous rivalry and the chase for colonial aggrandizement of the Great Powers at the end of the 19th century. It was always a mere geographical expression.