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Britishness, Race, Identity & Accent: Who Is Truly British?By Georges Macnobleson-IdowuBritishness is both a legal natio...
09/08/2026

Britishness, Race, Identity & Accent: Who Is Truly British?

By Georges Macnobleson-Idowu

Britishness is both a legal nationality and a sense of belonging. It is not determined by skin colour, but neither can Britain's history and ancestral identities simply be ignored. To understand modern British identity, it is important to distinguish between nationality, ethnicity, culture and ancestry.

It means that a person can be Black and British, Asian and British, or have Nigerian, Jamaican, Indian, Pakistani or Ghanaian ancestry and still be completely British in nationality, upbringing and identity. At the same time, people whose families have lived in Britain for generations may reasonably regard their English, Scottish, Welsh or other historical ancestry as an important part of who they are. These identities do not have to contradict one another.

Nationality answers the question, “What country do I belong to?” Ethnicity concerns ancestry and cultural heritage, while culture reflects the traditions, values, language and experiences that shape an individual. One person can therefore possess several layers of identity at the same time.

Britain's history makes this particularly important. The country has been shaped by centuries of migration, empire, trade, conflict and cultural exchange. The arrival and settlement of people from Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and elsewhere have significantly transformed British society. Consequently, the idea that Britishness must correspond to a particular skin colour, accent or ancestry is increasingly difficult to sustain.
However, recognising modern multicultural Britain should not mean dismissing the historical identities of the people of these islands. Someone whose family has deep ancestral roots in Britain has a legitimate historical connection to the country. Equally, a Black person born and raised in Birmingham, Manchester or London has a legitimate British identity. These two positions can coexist.

Britishness and Race

Race inevitably enters discussions about British identity because Britain has a complicated history of colonialism, immigration and racial discrimination. Yet it would be wrong to suggest that Britain as a whole does not want people of colour. Millions of white Britons have embraced multicultural Britain, while racial prejudice nevertheless remains a reality in parts of the society. The sensible position lies between these extremes.

Concerns about immigration, integration, cultural change and national identity should not automatically be dismissed as racism. At the same time, legitimate concerns about immigration should never become an argument that people of a particular race can never truly belong to Britain.

Also a Black British Person does not necessarily have to sound white. It is a misconception to believe that a Black British person must speak, behave or sound like a white Briton to be regarded as genuinely British. This is clearly unreasonable. Britain has no single accent or way of speaking. A person from Birmingham can sound very different from someone from Liverpool, Newcastle, Glasgow or London. Accent is therefore not a reliable measure of Britishness.

A Black Briton may speak with a Birmingham, London or other British accent while maintaining Nigerian, Ghanaian, Jamaican or Caribbean cultural influences. They may also retain aspects of their family's traditions without becoming any less British. Integration should not mean cultural imitation. A Black British person should be able to say: “I am British, but I do not have to become culturally white to prove it.” That is not a rejection of British identity. It is an acknowledgement that contemporary British culture itself has been shaped by people from different backgrounds.
The real challenge is to avoid two extremes. It would be wrong to tell people with deep ancestral connections to Britain that their history no longer matters because the country has become multicultural. It would be equally wrong to tell Black, Asian or other minority Britons that they can never be genuinely British because of their ancestry or skin colour. Modern British identity can accommodate both historical continuity and contemporary diversity.

Britishness can encompass ancestry, citizenship, culture, history, shared institutions and personal belonging. These dimensions may differ from one individual to another without making one person's Britishness more legitimate than another's. Britain should therefore be confident enough to acknowledge where it came from while accepting what it has become.

Britishness does not require a particular skin colour, ancestry or accent. But understanding Britishness requires an honest appreciation of Britain's history, its historical people and the diverse society it has become.

Conclusion

The question should perhaps no longer be simply, “Who is truly British?” The more constructive question is: “How can different dimensions of British identity coexist?”

Britain can honour its historical people without excluding citizens whose ancestry lies elsewhere. It can recognise the contribution of immigration without pretending that migration has had no cultural or demographic consequences. And it can confront racism without making questions about national identity, integration and cultural continuity illegitimate. Britishness does not require a particular skin colour, ancestry or accent. A Black British person does not have to abandon their African or Caribbean heritage to demonstrate their Britishness. Equally, recognising the legitimacy of Black British identity does not require Britain to forget its historical and ancestral roots.

A confident nation should be capable of remembering where it came from while accepting what it has become.

By Georges Macnobleson-Idowu, a UK-based Nigerian veteran journalist writes in from Birmingham.

Remi Tinubu’s Point:From Survival to Prosperity: Why Small Businesses & Agriculture Are Key To Nigeria’s Economic Recove...
09/08/2026

Remi Tinubu’s Point:

From Survival to Prosperity: Why Small Businesses & Agriculture Are Key To Nigeria’s Economic Recovery

By Georges Macnobleson-Idowu

Across Nigeria today, millions of families wake up each morning with one pressing question: How do we survive another day in a difficult economy? Rising food prices, inflation, unemployment, and the high cost of transportation have made life challenging for households across the country. Yet, amid these hardships lies an opportunity that many Nigerians are beginning to rediscover—the power of small businesses, petty trading, and agriculture.

Economic recovery is not built by governments alone. While public policies can create the right environment, lasting prosperity is ultimately driven by the creativity, resilience, and enterprise of ordinary citizens.

The economic reforms introduced by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu have been accompanied by difficult adjustments that have placed pressure on many Nigerians. However, the broader objective of these reforms is to build a more sustainable economy capable of attracting investment, boosting production, and creating jobs over time. As these reforms continue to unfold, many citizens are looking for practical ways to adapt and improve their livelihoods.

One of the most encouraging voices in this conversation has been Nigeria’s First Lady, Oluremi Tinubu. She has consistently emphasized that there is dignity in honest work and has encouraged Nigerians not to look down on petty trading or small-scale enterprises. Her message is simple but profound: every successful business starts somewhere. This perspective deserves serious attention.

Many of Nigeria’s biggest entrepreneurs did not begin with multinational companies or large factories. They started with roadside stalls, neighbourhood shops, small farms, tailoring businesses, food vending, transportation services, or simple trading activities. Through discipline, consistency, and reinvestment, these modest ventures grew into thriving enterprises that now employ hundreds or even thousands of people. The same path remains open to today’s generation.

Agriculture, in particular, offers enormous opportunities. Nigeria possesses vast arable land, favourable weather across many regions, and a growing domestic market hungry for locally produced food. Whether through crop cultivation, poultry, fish farming, livestock, vegetable gardening, food processing, or agribusiness services, agriculture has the potential to create employment while improving food security and reducing dependence on imports.

Beyond farming, countless opportunities exist in small-scale manufacturing, fashion design, catering, digital services, logistics, artisan trades, cosmetics, recycling, repairs, and retail businesses. Many of these ventures require more determination and creativity than large amounts of capital.

Importantly, entrepreneurship should not be viewed merely as a means of survival. It should become a pathway to wealth creation. A person who begins by selling vegetables today may eventually own a chain of grocery stores. A young graduate operating a small poultry farm may later become a commercial producer supplying supermarkets nationwide. Every successful enterprise begins with a first customer and a willingness to persevere.

This does not mean the challenges should be ignored. Access to affordable finance, reliable electricity, good roads, security, quality education, and a supportive business environment remain essential. Governments at all levels have a responsibility to continue improving these conditions so that entrepreneurs can thrive. Economic reforms are most effective when they are matched by policies that support small businesses, farmers, and manufacturers.

At the same time, Nigerians themselves must embrace a culture of productivity, innovation, and self-reliance. Rather than waiting indefinitely for white-collar jobs, many young people can acquire vocational skills, embrace digital entrepreneurship, or explore agriculture and other productive sectors. Small businesses may not produce instant wealth, but they often provide a foundation for long-term financial stability.

History has shown that nations recover when their people produce more than they consume. They recover when citizens invest in local industries, cultivate the land, manufacture goods, provide services, and create employment for others. Nigeria is no exception.

The journey out of economic hardship will not happen overnight. It will require patience, sound policies, private sector investment, and the determination of millions of hardworking Nigerians. But if citizens seize opportunities in agriculture, petty trading, and small businesses—as encouraged by First Lady Oluremi Tinubu—while taking advantage of emerging opportunities under the current economic reforms, the country can steadily build a more resilient and prosperous economy.

The future of Nigeria will not be written only in government offices or corporate boardrooms. It will also be written in the farms of rural communities, the markets of bustling cities, the workshops of artisans, the stalls of petty traders, and the dreams of entrepreneurs who refuse to give up.

For many Nigerians, the road to national recovery may well begin with one small business, one farm, one customer, and one determined step at a time.

Georges Macnobleson-Idowu, a UK-based Nigerian veteran journalist writes in from Birmingham.

Why Tinubu’s Proposed Autonomous Regional Government Is Key to Nigeria’s FutureBy Georges Macnobleson-IdowuNigeria’s gre...
09/08/2026

Why Tinubu’s Proposed Autonomous Regional Government Is Key to Nigeria’s Future

By Georges Macnobleson-Idowu

Nigeria’s greatest challenge may not simply be bad leadership, corruption, insecurity or economic hardship. Beneath many of these problems lies a deeper structural issue: Nigeria is attempting to govern an extraordinarily diverse country through a system that often treats fundamentally different regions and people as though they share identical needs, values, priorities and social realities. This is why the renewed conversation about autonomous regional government deserves serious national attention.

Nigeria is not merely a geographical expression created by political boundaries. It is a country of diverse people with different histories, cultures, traditions, economic structures, religious influences, social expectations and conceptions of authority.

The Yoruba of the Southwest, the Igbo of the Southeast and the Hausa-Fulani and other people of the North have developed distinctive cultural identities over generations. These differences influence how people understand education, family, leadership, religion, enterprise, community and social responsibility. Ignoring or perhaps undermining these differences in the structure of government has over the years contributed to some of Nigeria’s persistent political and developmental difficulties.

Whether we like it or not, culture matters in governance. Culture is often overlooked in discussions about Nigeria's political restructuring. Yet culture profoundly influences how societies respond to government policies. What is considered normal, respectful or desirable in one Nigerian community may be viewed differently elsewhere.

For instance, within traditional Yoruba society, respect for elders is deeply embedded in social life. A child may prostrate or kneel when greeting a parent or elder. For many Yoruba families, this is not humiliation; it is a cultural expression of respect, upbringing and recognition of age and authority.
Someone raised in a different cultural environment may find such a practice unusual or difficult to understand. Likewise, attitudes towards education have historically differed across Nigeria. In parts of Northern Nigeria, traditional Islamic education has had enormous cultural and religious influence, while Western-style education developed under a different historical trajectory. The term boko became associated with Western or non-Islamic learning, and the extremist organisation Boko Haram subsequently became internationally notorious for its violent opposition to Western education. However, it would be wrong to suggest that the entire Northern Nigeria rejects Western education. Millions of Northerners embrace modern education and contribute significantly to Nigerian society. The point is that Nigeria's different regions have experienced education, religion and modernity through different historical and cultural lenses, which has overtime defined their individual sectional perception to life.

The same principle applies to the Southeast, where Igbo traditions have historically placed considerable emphasis on entrepreneurship, commerce, personal achievement and community advancement. The Southwest has its own distinctive history of education, public administration, intellectual development and commercial activity. These differences should not be regarded as weaknesses. They are part of Nigeria's strength. The problem is that our political structure has often failed to convert this diversity into an advantage.

The Problem With One-Size-Fits-All Governance

Nigeria's federal system remains highly centralised, with enormous political, financial and administrative power concentrated at the centre. This creates a situation where decisions made in Abuja can have very different consequences for communities thousands of kilometres away.

The economic priorities of Lagos and Ogun cannot necessarily be identical to those of Anambra, Imo, Kano, Katsina or Borno state. The developmental challenges of the Southeast cannot be treated as identical realities of the Niger Delta or the middle-belt. Yet the current structure frequently attempts to manage these different realities through largely uniform national policies.

This is where regional autonomy becomes compelling. Autonomous regional governments would allow regions to develop policies that respond more directly to their own circumstances while maintaining Nigeria as one sovereign nation.

Regional Autonomy Does Not Mean Break-Up

One of the greatest misunderstandings surrounding regional autonomy is the assumption that it is synonymous with separation. It is not. Regional autonomy can exist within a strong federation. The objective would not necessarily be to create independent countries, but to redistribute political, economic and administrative responsibilities between the federal government and the regions. The federal government could retain responsibility for matters such as defence, foreign affairs, currency, national monetary policy and other genuinely national functions, while regions would have greater control over education, infrastructure, state policing, economic development, agriculture, transportation and other areas where local knowledge is essential.

This would allow different regions to experiment with policies suited to their particular realities. This is so because different problems require different solutions. The Southwest has enormous commercial potential, a powerful retail entrepreneurial culture, agricultural land, mineral resources, a highly urbanised population and a long tradition of educational and administrative development. The Southeast also has a powerful entrepreneurial culture, mineral resources, agricultural land, and extensive commercial networks that could be better supported through regionally tailored economic policies. The North possesses enormous agricultural land, mineral resources and a young population, but also faces distinctive challenges involving education, poverty, insecurity, infrastructure and human capital development. The Niger Delta on the other hand has its own unique environmental, economic and developmental challenges. Why should all these regions necessarily be expected to follow the same central developmental template? My dad will often say, a diverse country requires flexibility, not uniformity. Regional governments could identify their own priorities, mobilise resources more effectively and be held directly accountable by the people they govern.

Autonomy Encourages Healthy Competition

Regional autonomy could introduce an important element currently lacking in Nigeria's political system: competitive federalism. If regions had greater control over their resources and policies, Nigerians could compare their performance.

Which region provides better schools?
Which has the most efficient healthcare system?
Which creates the best environment for businesses?
Which attracts the most investment?
Which manages agriculture most effectively?
Which provides the safest environment for its citizens?

Such competition could encourage innovation and accountability. Instead of waiting for Abuja to solve every problem, regions would have stronger incentives to develop solutions themselves.

Tinubu and the Opportunity for Structural Reform

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu's administration has already demonstrated a willingness to undertake difficult economic reforms, particularly through policies designed to reduce longstanding distortions in the Nigerian economy. But economic reform alone may not be sufficient. Nigeria's structural political problems require equally serious consideration. The President therefore has an opportunity to place political restructuring and genuine federalism at the centre of the national conversation. The debate should not be reduced to whether Nigeria should remain one country. Nigerians overwhelmingly understand the importance of national unity.

The more important question is: What kind of federal structure can make Nigeria's unity work better? A federation in which the centre controls too much can produce resentment, dependency and political competition for access to federal power. A federation in which regions possess meaningful autonomy can encourage responsibility, innovation and accountability. Unity through accommodation, not uniformity. Nigeria does not have to erase its cultural differences to achieve national unity.

The Yoruba do not have to become Hausa.
The Hausa do not have to become Igbo.
The Igbo do not have to adopt Yoruba traditions.

Nigerians can maintain their cultural identities while sharing a common national identity. Indeed, true national unity should be capable of accommodating difference. The mistake is to assume that national integration requires cultural uniformity. It does not. Nigeria's diversity should be treated as an asset that can be managed through an intelligent constitutional arrangement.

A New Nigerian Federalism

The question facing Nigeria is therefore bigger than the next election or the next political party. It is about whether the country is prepared to rethink the structure of its federation. Autonomous regional government could provide an opportunity to bring government closer to the people, recognise cultural and economic differences, encourage regional innovation and reduce the unhealthy struggle for control of the federal centre.

It could also give Nigerians greater ownership of their development. Instead of constantly asking, “What is Abuja doing for us?”, citizens could increasingly ask, “What is our region doing with the powers and resources entrusted to it?” That shift in mentality could be transformative.

Nigeria does not need to become less Nigerian. Rather it needs a political structure that understands what being Nigerian actually means: different peoples, different histories, different cultures and different aspirations, bound together by a common national destiny. Therefore the future of Nigeria may depend not on forcing its diversity into a single mould, but on creating a federation capable of allowing that diversity to flourish. Regional autonomy should not be viewed as a threat to Nigeria's unity. If properly designed, it could be the very mechanism that makes Nigerian unity more sustainable.

Georges Macnobleson-Idowu, a UK-based Nigerian veteran journalist writes in from Birmingham.

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