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{
    "id": 155984,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/155984/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 297,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, ethnicity is a problem that has bedeviled this country but which we have had denial from Independence to date. Ethnicity and problems of negative manifestation of ethnicity resulted in many yields in the country, especially those that led to the violence that we saw in the aftermath to the last General Elections. Mr. Speaker, Sir, this issue has a historical genesis. At the time of Independence, those nationalists who fought for the independence of this country did not wish to address the problem of tribalism and ethnicity. This is because they felt that it was being used by the colonialists as a divisive mechanism to divide the people of this country. Thereafter, our intellectuals also failed to address this problem because they thought it was primitive and premedial. They did not think it had any place in a modern State. Mr. Speaker, Sir, we all know that in this country and the rest of Africa, ethnicity and tribalism is the elephant in the room that has never been addressed. Indeed, I do not think the word \"ethnicity\" exists in our Constitution until we have had to settle this problem. If diagnosis is 50 per cent of the treatment, the very establishment of this Act and this Commission is a realisation of the problem we have as far as ethnicity is concerned. Mr. Speaker, Sir, ethnicity is one of the most potent problems that face this country. Indeed, it is the most potent ingredient in the politics of this county like many other countries on this continent. It is not only a problem bedeviling Africa, because if you look at Europe, every nation essentially is an ethno-nation. Ethno-nationalism is responsible for almost all the wars that were fought in the continent of Europe including the last wars that were fought in the Baltics and the breakup of the Republic of Yugoslavia. Mr. Speaker, Sir, therefore, this is a problem that requires full frontal attention and does not deserve to be pushed under the carpet. In the circumstances, it is timely that this House addresses this issue. The House should go ahead and set up the Ethnic Integration Act following the mediation process that took place at Serena Hotel."
}