IS NIGERIA TOO DIVIVED TO BE UNITED?

With everything going on in our beloved country at the moment, it is seeming like the drum beat of war might soon sound, which I do not wish to happen, as should every well-meaning Nigerian.

From many indicators, some persons have ulterior motives in heating up the polity with tribal and ethnic sentiments. Please, include ‘religion’ in the fray too. You can never ignore these three in the looming gung-ho.

Now, it is looking like a ‘we’ against ‘them’ kind of thingy. And political tension seems to be rising on all fronts. So much so, that threats and quit notices are now being issued back and forth, from eminent political figures.

This, no doubt, is a cause for concern.

Some south-western commentators believe the gladiator’s radical approach to security is the only way peace can be guaranteed for its people. Especially, when the federal government has not broadly shown the political will to deal with the insurgents disguised as herdsmen. Yet, the Miyetti Allah group won’t put a disclaimer on their vices. Almost as if they support the acts of terrorism. I cannot categorically say.

Anyways, like I said earlier, we are in difficult times politically. And this is threatening our social-cultural co-habitation. Those who should wade in into the matter, must find the voice to talk, and the tact to go about it. However, before that can be achieved, we need to come together and ask ourselves a salient question.

This question demands every sense of national honesty and objectivity, and not some pent-up aggressive emotionality or socio-cultural sentiments.

Presently, I do not possess sufficient data to assertively come up with weighty answers. I am just another voice in the crowd, a soundless echo, to put it mildly. Therefore, I cannot speak like an authority for any socio-cultural group. I am a concerned Nigerian who wants the best for my motherland.

Please, I would like to know, the Nigeria we are, and the Nigeria we have, right now, do you honestly think we are too divided to be united. Like seriously, do you foresee a time when we all will agree that Nigeria is one, as we’ve always clamored for. I know that history has already set a precedent.

There are nations who have gone through this phase of ethnic, tribal, and religious divergences, and have had to struggle for relative peace. Not that the human nature just went on holidays, but that certain persons consciously decided to follow the path of peaceful co-existing, by downplaying their own interests and ego for the good of the majority, and also building systems that are stronger than individuals. Can’t we copy good habits?

In Nigeria, we have so many factions and fora claiming to represent the people, some truly are, while some in reality are not. Their supposed fight for the people is a façade to shield their true intentions. Like the popular parlance goes, dis life no balance at all.
In my own estimation, I see it like, in light of the ‘good’, the bad wouldn’t want to lag behind. And to that effect, it would seem some persons have a whole lot attached to our disintegration. Which has brought a palpable feeling of dissonance.

Now, the idea that there is no love lost between the North and South is a dangerous idea to allow linger. The longer it stays on our minds, the higher the risk of war and mutual disaffection.

Less I stray away from my question, isn’t it boding to have tags like “killer Fulani herdsmen”? It sounds more like criminalizing a particular tribe. But that’s my opinion anyways. To so tag a tribe is worrisome, for me. A criminal is first human, who of course is associated to a socio-cultural group, which we cannot totally rule out. Yet, we cannot tag the whole tribe as complicit to crimes effected by a group of bandits and miscreants. Don’t let me belabor this strain.

Let’s stick with the question. Do you honestly think, we are better as one, or divided into autonomous parts?
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we honestly we are better as one
united we stand devided we scartere