Etymology as hope for Nigeria: How we can establish unity through anthropology of language, By ‘Tope Fasua

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Now let me put down the little that comes to my head for now, in evidence of Nigeria’s unity, of the fact that we are one, and that our ancestors had great interaction among themselves, and respect for one another in times past than we have today when we are supposed to be more enlightened and educated, even as we carry millions of communication gadgets around but refuse to understand one another.

I first came across the word as a Scrabble-loving kid. I could have been around 12 or 13 years. In those days, we would ‘challenge’ and search for words using the Chambers Dictionary. We also sort of built our vocabulary and I would play Scrabble in competitions at the University. I still do today even if I have to play with myself, just forming words and romancing the board. Nigeria actually emerged as the world’s best Scrabbling nation in 2025, and that is no mean feat. We have some of the craziest players in the Delta/Edo axis, but in the South-West and South-South, the game is also popular with very good players, even though it looks like the Gen Zs are not keen on it.

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So, whenever we check words and spellings in the Chambers Dictionary in particular, the last part of each word is usually the etymology, which traces the origin of the word. We would find out that most English words were from Latin, French, German, and other origins. Etymology also tells an eloquent story about the history of a people, where they came from, who they related to, traded with, borrowed from or lent to. It is indeed a study in anthropology, and many scholars specialise in the subject – etymology. The relationship between English and these other influences from Normandy, Saxony, Rome, Greece, Denmark, Norway etc, is the reason why the ancestry of the British Crown today connects to all those other nations. The House of Tudor has blood drawn from everywhere. Their cousins are royalty in many nations of Europe – up to Russia.

Indeed, some Nigerian scholars have done and keep doing work in this area, even though what I have seen are localised studies maybe between two kingdoms or between Igbos and Yorubas. I believe that a pan-Nigerian study will be very beneficial, even to our economy. If we took ourselves a little more seriously, we could calmly chart and trace our interrelationships and histories the way the wise British have done theirs.

I attended the African Economists Conference in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire some weeks back, and while I was discussing with a lady from northern Ghana, her colleague chipped in that in Ghana they don’t believe in tribalism the way we do in Nigeria. Whereas I know that that is not totally true, but the fact is that in Ghana they are not as obsessed as we are with tribal exceptionalism or puritanism. In the north of Ghana are Hausa-speaking people. President John Mahama is one. He is a Christian, but his brother is Muslim. There seems to be more assimilation among Ghanaian people than there is in Nigeria, but when you visit places like Niima, you will see the dichotomy in the tribes that make up Ghana. But we in Nigeria really need to slow down on our unending inter-tribal strife.

Even in foreign lands these days, it has become received wisdom that Nigerians are Nigeria’s worst enemies. The advent of social media and a lot of half-education has resulted in ordinarily vocal Nigerians to take liberty in running down their country and many do this simply because they feel no allegiance to the country. Also, because this has gone on for too long, it has become the default mode especially for young Nigerian adults. Social media has created influencer out of charlatans, and whoever can boast of the largest number of followers controls the most hearts and can lead millions into ignorance and perdition. There is currently a discussion going on around what they call ‘Olodo Uprising,’ whereby nitwits with loads of money can take liberty to mess around with very educated people while flaunting their lucre. The idea is to prove that all that matters is money and nothing else. It is a terrible state of affairs.

But we can interrogate where the rain started to beat us. In my view, we got our independence rather cheaply such that it means almost nothing to us. Kenya, Zimbabwe, Algeria, Angola, South Africa, Mozambique, among others, can tell us what they went through to obtain independence. We got it into our heads rather too early that because we were the largest national experiment among black people and we found crude oil in the ground, then we were somehow superior to all other people in the world. Then the earlier coups and civil war did not help us, as they created sharp schisms and dichotomies among the people. We somehow became acutely aware of our differences rather than cherishing our similarities. It is our similarities, our joint histories, our similar languages that fade one into another, our centuries of inter-ethnic trades, intermarriages, and cultural fusions that will lead to cohesion and help us become prosperous, happy and genuinely proud as a people.

We cannot thrive by putting others down or deluding ourselves how our culture is superior to others. That is what the old Greeks described as idiocy. More so, in today’s totally globalised world, we cannot afford that tunnel vision. We cannot be asking the world to accept us for who we are, when we are busy at home revelling in discrimination, from one tribe/nationality to another, and one religion to the next.

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So, I had been ruminating for decades now on the subject of etymology, and egging on scholars to try and embark on this massive work. Nigeria, of course, is a kaleidoscope of colours and tendencies. I have now concluded that if nobody performs this work of unity, sometime in the future, I will have to do it myself. Now let me put down the little that comes to my head for now, in evidence of Nigeria’s unity, of the fact that we are one, and that our ancestors had great interaction among themselves, and respect for one another in times past than we have today when we are supposed to be more enlightened and educated, even as we carry millions of communication gadgets around but refuse to understand one another.

The story is still being told between the Binis and Yoruba people – who is senior to the other. That is not the subject of this article, but many words are the same between the two languages. I recall casually using the word ‘Tule’ while speaking close to an Edo person and he appeared surprised because the word means ‘run,’ exactly as it does in Yoruba.

1. The Vice President of Nigeria, His Excellency Kashim Shettima is also a believer in what I am trying to pass across here. In many of his speeches, he talks about how the Berom of Plateau State trace their origins to Gobir, in northwest Nigeria. He mentions several words that are similar between the Ngas of Plateau State and his own Kanuri in Borno State.

2. Between the Igbos and Yorubas – especially northern Yorubas – are many similar words. The words for stone (Okwute and Okuta) are pronounced in the same tone. Aka (hand) is the same in both languages. Ala (Igbo) and Ale (northern Yoruba) mean the same thing – land. Onu (mouth) is the same in northern Yoruba (Ondo/Ekiti etc) and in Igbo. There are several words that mean the same thing even if pronounced slightly differently. That is etymology for you.

3. The relationship between Yoruba and Igala is even more interesting. In counting from one to 10, six or seven of the numbers are pronounced exactly the same. Both languages are tonal in the same manner, and you find people from both ethnicities picking up each other’s languages quite easily. Okun Yorubas of Kogi have a fascinating diversity of languages and one of them (the Kabba area) has many similarities with Ijebu language. Yet Ijebu is hundreds of kilometres away. The Ogori people have a similar language to the Ebiras but also diverge at some point, with many of them bearing Yoruba names even though they may not speak the language. This is also very common among the Akoko-Edos. Need I speak about the Akokos of Ondo State where in some towns, three distinct languages are spoken and some speak very exotic languages that few can decode.

4. The story is still being told between the Binis and Yoruba people – who is senior to the other. That is not the subject of this article, but many words are the same between the two languages. I recall casually using the word ‘Tule’ while speaking close to an Edo person and he appeared surprised because the word means ‘run,’ exactly as it does in Yoruba.

5. Let’s go to the East of Nigeria. In parts of Abia, men are called Ette, just as they are in Akwa Ibom and Cross River State. In Abiriba, people bear names like Edem, which is also Akwa Ibom/Cross River language. The problem arises when we start to try to claim ownership of a word or a language as a way of establishing superiority. In my view, everybody borrows from everybody and scientific research about who we are will only show us that languages fade from one to the other. In many towns and villages, the languages spoken in border communities take a little from nearby settlements. It is only natural. No language stands alone without influence from their neighbors. There is no culture that hasn’t borrowed from or lent to another.

6. There are many similarities too between Hausa and Yoruba languages. Ashana is Ishana (matchstick), Albarka or Alubarika means blessing even though this flows from the Arabic influence. To Kama is to understand. Yorubas use this as slang with same meaning. To ‘ji soro’ in Hausa means to fear. In Yoruba, it has been adopted to mean ‘to respect, to admire, even to fear.’

7. From my studies, Igbo language flows into Idoma. Idoma also carries some Efik/Ibibio with it. Towards the west, Igbo language flows into Edo or vice versa through Ika and Anioma people. Nnamdi Azikiwe, in his autobiography, wrote about how the Onicha people left Edo Kingdom, and went east. This is backed up scientifically when you see towns like Onicha Ugbo, Onicha Olona, Onicha Ukwu, along that axis, before you get to the now massive Onitsha city. Igbos also connect with Akwa Ibom through influences among the Abiribas, Ohafia and Arochukwu people. The Yorubas flow into Edo through Akoko Edo, Sobe, and Owan people. The Edo influence is strong in the Ose/Owo axis of Ondo State and through the Ekitis, Yorubas flow into Kogi State. The word ‘Okun’ is universally used from Akure to the whole of Ekiti. But there are some Okun languages that central Yorubas could never understand.

Nigeria especially stands at a crossroads. With the largest population among black nations, Nigeria is a melting pot of all the issues that black people face. Managing large populations is a job of work. Managing diversity is another task entirely. Managing large numbers of illiterate and half-educated people is a herculean task. Managing resources in the ground and those who wish to steal them by sophisticated means is an onerous venture.

In fact, I was once in Itapaji Ekiti on the border with Kogi State and could not understand their language. The Okun language resembles Ijebu language, in part, but then flows into the more exotic languages of Kogi – Ogori, Ebira and so on – only for the Igala language to resemble central Yoruba the more. The Nupes have always interacted with the Yorubas – the Oshodis of Lagos are known as fundamentally Nupe people. Nupe and Yoruba language have many similarities. Now if we go to the vast plains and lush mountains of Plateau, Taraba, and Adamawa, we will get lost in the panoramic diversity and uniqueness of cultures. But we will also find similarities that tell eloquent stories, from one to the other.

Let us step back and contemplate our fate in Africa. Part of why Nigeria has a security challenge flow from the haphazard manner in which African nations were carved up. In all of the flanks of Nigeria, border communities were cut in half, some belonging to Niger, Chad, Cameroon, and Benin Republic, while the rest belong to Nigeria. But in those border communities, they don’t recognise the fact that they are meant to view each other with caution and suspicion just because they belong to different countries under different colonial masters. What matters to our people is that they speak the same language and worship God in the same way. They can even trace ancestries way back several hundred years which unite them more than anything. This is the case in the 4,000 plus kilometres of perimeter of our country. Movements in the Atlantic Ocean to the south of Nigeria is even fluider, and the communities which have always been riverine from Gabon to Senegal have always had similarities in language and other elements of culture.

This means that achieving socioeconomic development in our country is a much more complicated contemplation than we often put out. This means that a critical variable for the achievement of development is the culture and history of a people. We thus have to cooperate and see each other as one. Nigeria especially stands at a crossroads. With the largest population among black nations, Nigeria is a melting pot of all the issues that black people face. Managing large populations is a job of work. Managing diversity is another task entirely. Managing large numbers of illiterate and half-educated people is a herculean task. Managing resources in the ground and those who wish to steal them by sophisticated means is an onerous venture. Fending off espionage, cheating and plundering by wiser, older countries, including decades of instability sponsored by them because life is simply brutal, is going to take every ounce of our wits and energy. There is therefore the need to cooperate.

I have been to Cote D’Ivoire lately and the 8 per cent GDP growth is showing in new investments and many cranes working in Abidjan. The key difference I saw was that the people of CIV are just a lot calmer than Nigerians. Taxis get to traffic lights at 6 a.m. in the morning when no one is watching and they stop for the lights. I never saw a single car beat the traffic. Very few people tooted their car horns. Somehow, people knew their places and society flowed. I saw the same thing in Cotonou some months ago when I visited. The serenity of the airport alone was something. The boulevard around the airport was spick and span. All motorcycle riders and their passengers wore helmets. All, without an exception.

But in Nigeria, indiscipline and indiscretion is our default mode. Many Nigerians walk about and behave like they seek laws to break. A culture of noise and power shows does not help. In any other country outside here, a siren sound is the precursor to a police car, ambulance or fire truck. Here, it is another acting big man – a local government chairman, councillor, DG, director or just about anyone whose day is made by intimidating the people. Hopefully, one day we will come to our senses. But the most important thing now is to begin to fix our unity, our cohesion, our understanding of nationhood. And the etymology – the study of our languages and their interlinkages – offers great hope.

Can someone take me up on this? Or do I have to find the time somewhere in the future, to do this work and write the book myself?

‘Tope Fasua is the special adviser to the President on Economic Matters.