Came across the below post by a friend some few hours back and i was forced to research back into the terms despite having knowledge of them before and would be air my views after the quoted post
“Your fellow Southerner is in a position to give you employment.
You go to him for employment.
You speak good English and write an excellent application letter to impress him.
He tells you to bring your qualifications.
You bring your First Degree (First Class or second class).
He tells you to go and do your Masters and even PhD for you to get the job.
A Northerner is in a position to give employment.
An Hausa Man goes to him.
He speaks Hausa to him.
He tells him to bring his qualifications.
He brings a third class degree or an SSCE with two Credits.
He gets the job and saves money to further his education.
He gets a Masters Degree while doing the job.
Tomorrow, he is appointed as Executive Director.
Ten years Later, he becomes Chairman or DG of the Agency.
The Southerner sees this and hates on the Hausa Man.
He accuses him of nepotism.
But that's not nepotism.
That's communalism.
Southerners must understand the difference between nepotism and communalism.
Helping your Brother to succeed is not nepotism.
Southerners just need to learn how to love one another like Northerners do.
Stop hiding opportunities from your people.
Northerners do not hide opportunities from their people.”
First off the entire write is about the tribalism and nepotism existing within the sub ethnic groups in Nigeria and how it is transferred in the position of power.
First off, Communalism does not justify the employment of an under qualifies person into a position just because you share certajn demographic factors, that’s a flawed idea of communalism.
True communalism is the strong allegiance to one's own ethnic group rather than to society as a whole. It is more of a political ideology than that of human resource. Naturally it is expected that one Favors his ethnic group over others. But that’s a function of political bias and partial racism.
Nepotism on the other hand is the practice among those with power or influence of favouring relatives or friends, especially by giving them jobs. This arguably is seen as the other side of communalism. When communalism is brought as an idea of Human resource function then it becomes nepotism as appointments are biased and not necessarily with a political motivation.
These two concepts form the present day realities of the political world and labour market in my beloved country Nigeria. Both concepts obviously fueled by the Corruption that has been woven into the fabric of the Country’s existence coupled the existence of tribalism in the system and the ideology that some are marginalized.
For you to get a job you are clearly qualified for you must be ready to go the extra mile by doing things which shouldn’t be.
The thin line in between this concepts lies on the intentions. Id reiterate that communalism is a political ideology that seeks to promote the goodwill of a particular set of people while Nepotism fueled by corruption is just a function of a corrupt and rotten system.