1. Nigeria & Ukraine share a great deal similarities. Like Nigerians, Ukrainians are yet to resolve their national identity crisis between pro-Russia East & pro-European West. This conflict started since Ukraine’s 1991 independence from the Soviet Union.
2. Like Northern & Southern Nigeria, East & West Ukraine disagree fundamentally about what sort of country they want to have & what it means to be Ukrainian.
3. Like Nigeria, Ukraine is not a coherent national unit with a common narrative or commonly shared political aspirations. Russian-speaking Ukrainians in the East & South, particularly in Crimea, consider themselves as citizens of Russia over Ukraine.
4. The deep-seated hate did not start with Putin, it dates back to the 1700. When Russian leader Catherine the Great began the process of ‘Russifying’ Ukraine - making it Russian.
5. Russification of Ukraine continued until the 1950s.
It meant shipping in ethnic Russians into Ukraine, imposing laws that required schools to teach the Russian rather than Ukrainian language, & stationing Russian troops in the area.
It meant shipping in ethnic Russians into Ukraine, imposing laws that required schools to teach the Russian rather than Ukrainian language, & stationing Russian troops in the area.
6. At some point in the 1800s, the Ukrainian language was banned outright. Then in the 1930s, Stalin caused a famine in Ukraine that killed millions of Ukrainians, mostly in the East. Stalin then repopulated the area with ethnic Russians.
7. There are lessons for Nigerians here. The politics of tribalism, religion & of hate, will continue to slow down the development & growth of Nigeria. “History if it’s any good, teaches us the treachery of men stays with them in the afterlife.”
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