Nigeria: Hausa/Fulani and Igbo different worldviews - Tony Osborg

In Kano city, most times, if you enter the Keke of an Aboriginal Hausa/Fulani man and tell him, lets say, you are going to Sabuwar Kofa from Sabon Gari area, he does not necessarily ask you how much you want to pay him. He tells you to get in and he takes you there. If the amount you finally pay him at the destination is not good enough, he tells you it is too poor and persuades you to add more to it. If you plead with him that this is all you have, he takes it and takes his leave.

The Hausa/Fulani Keke driver believes that his primary purpose on the road is to move people from one place to another, making money out of this movement is a secondary purpose. He is contented with whatever profit he makes for that day. I believe this is part of Islamic religious influence in his daily life.
In the same Kano City, most times, if you enter an Igbo man's Keke, the second thing he tells you after asking of your destination is his price. If you do not agree with his price, he tells you to get down instantly and would rather 'burn' his fuel looking for other passengers than carry you for the price he is not comfortable with. If this Igbo keke driver sense that you are new around town, he will likely even exploit you by doubling his price. The Igbo man's primary aim on the road is to make money, you are simply a means to this end. He is a capitalist with a daily profit target and can even exploit his customer to meet up this target. This does not make the Igbo man a bad person, it only explains his worldview about doing business.

These two people, Hausa/Fulani and Igbo have different worldviews. You can see it in their daily business interaction. The Igbo man is no doubt a capitalist who puts profit over everything else. The other man is different and less ambitious.

These two people can live happily together under one national identity as Nigerians but to preserve their distinct identities at their locality levels, they must be allowed to play by their distinct rules that they consider as best in line with their inalienable cultural rights. This is another beauty of true federalism.

In the nearest future, I see the local Igbo man 'corrupting' the local Hausa/Fulani man with his capitalist worldview and and I see the Hausa/Fulani man embracing capitalism with full force. Its all part of globalization, anyway. Its already happening...

Who has observed it in his/her locality?

Tony Osborg