“I feel my heart break to see a nation ripped apart by its own greatest
strength--its diversity.
Melissa Etheridge (American Singer, b.1961)
Variety they say is the spice of life. It’s also
true to say that diversity is also the spice of life. What happens when the
zest that the spice brings is lost and the flavor is nothing but pain and
trauma that rocks the tongue that tastes the food.
So is the manner of the bridge that Nigerians
have to cross. Crossing the bridge can either bring them together stronger as a
nation or divide us as different people, different cultures and different mentality.
A walk back into 1967 when the country was ravaged by civil war
that left nothing less than a million souls dead. That should have been the
rope that binds the country together but that rope has always been severed many
times by religion, political views, greed and over all bad leadership. I remember
sharing the same room during my national youth service with Emmanuel from Kano
state and we sharing ideas about what the north and south all have in common
and even with our level of education and intelligence we still could not come
to the same conclusion. For one year that we lived together was character with
lovely and unbelievable scenes that would ever flush my mind. That the populace
differs in ideas, principles, knowledge and character should have been the bond
that links us together but never the less has been out curse.
Correct me
if am wrong, of
the 16 leaders that we have had in Nigeria,9 has been from the northern part of
the country and how come that that part has never been developed, it is a
desert that much must be done for it to look like Arizona (USA), says a part of
me, but then the truth of the matter is also that the quality of leaders that
we produce is so low in standard and that can also be traced not just to the
people but also to the education standard of the country. There have been
calls for sovereign national conference and would also be a welcome idea
but it will not just be another walk in the park but also a call to save not
just the future for our children but also that more lives, more youths, women that
can be saved.
When I finally
read that the president wanted dialog with the group
from the northern part, I thought he must have
been reading my mind but he did make
it clear no amnesty. So what’s the solution to our major problem? I have
read in many write up and also comments that we are on the brink of
dividing but will not in any way solve our problems as it did not solve
that of Sudan. I am of the opinion that instead of alternating presidents within the ethnic group, I would
suggest that the country be ruled regionally and these regions be governed by a
regional president who makes laws and passes it to the senate or house of assembly
as the case maybe and the overall president signs it after the senate debates. The
governors remain but are under the regional president who is under the overall
president. I mean switching to Federalism as practiced by the Europeans, as we all know, kin-selective
altruism has made its way into Nigerian politics and has spurned various
attempts by tribalists to concentrate Federal power to a particular region of
their interests. Nigeria's three largest ethnic groups (Hausa, Igbo and
Yoruba) have maintained historical preeminence in Nigerian politics; competition amongst these three
groups has fuelled corruption and graft. we have reached
a point where we should let the best man win and let the best person
represent us and not just selecting someone from our kin, this is killing us.
And on a final and maybe funny note, the entire constitution should
be overturned and made shorter, I have tried reading but could not finish it, I
think we have one of the longest constitutions.
Nice line of thought, Icecoldhart. But at this point I'd rather have Nigeria split and everyone go at her pace. Come to think of it, the backwardness of some is the backwardness of all. An end has to come to destruction of people's lives and properties.
ReplyDeleteThis piece is nothing but a crap period! this nation must be divided for any peace to reign
ReplyDeleteIt's evident that we can't live in peace as one egalitarian Country: from independence it has been progrom in the north all in the name of religion/tribalism; the only instrument created for national unity (NYSC)has come under attack in the north where innocent copers were hacked to death at their prime. What evidence do I want to see that the north is not with the rest of the Country? A southerner is president and the north manufactured BH to weaken him-the elites and the ordinary people in the north are never opposed to the activities of BH, in fact, the local people cheer when police/security agents are attacked besides opening their houses to habour them. This thing call Nigeria is a joke! lets sit and deliberate on whether or not we have any business beeing together. If you understand Hausa and listen to BBC hausa am sure you'll not talk about Nigeria as one Country but an entity existing under falsehood and hypocracy
ReplyDeleteNice view from your perspectives.I really dont know where to start but i think we need to either fight as men or break as weaklings.
DeleteAnd where do you stand? fighting as men or breaking as weakings? thanks
DeleteI will never ascribe to this oneness hypothesis anymore.
ReplyDeleteI reject it in totality.A husband or wife that refuse to talk to each other in the comfort of their bedroom are sending signals to the world to help them end the relationship at the open of the court platform and this is called peaceful divorce. Nigerians from the Northern part until now have been running away from sitting down with others from other regions forgetting that Nigeria is a multi-ethnic and religious -amalgamated entities. In what way do we move forward when one group deliberately refused to seek the path of peace and follow peaceful means of resolving known or unknown differences? In what way do we agree that the resources of each region should be used or misused by those from other regions to the detriment of the indigenes of such regions where poverty reigns. A thief can only steal for 9 days the tenth day is for the owner of the house.Think of where the money used in buying Bombs and auto-weapons of mass destruction is coming from, is it not from the oil money from the Niger-Delta region? The ibgos who have help to develop the Hausa land have been given quit notice by " Boko Haram" and yet, non of the Big wigs politicians from the North can make any statement to halt the threat. Is this how oneness we should remain? Do we need a soothsayer to inform Nigerians that is it now time to split and make it early before much innocent blood is spilled? I doubt if your views of oneness has considered that harnessing the benefit of diversity can only be reap when people agree and openly declare peaceful means of existence rather than violent and the satanic path of the Boko Haram and their Northern sponsors. Enough my friend, direct your late statemanship energy else where and not on the Nigerian must be one project.Thank you!
Nicely said and i totaly understand where you are coming from. The crack has already been opened since the beginning of it all,was not because of BOko haram but Amnesty to militants like it was said in my last blog.i still think spliting did not help sudan too much and MAY NOT help us too much.
DeleteSometime , the problem is deliberate mis-information and distortion of fact. Just look at this simple case of creating division by Sahara reporter :
ReplyDeleteGoing through this news on Sahara reporter, http://saharareporters.com/news-page/nigeria-police-and-boko-haram-fresh-gun-duel-kano
only to do image search and alas ....
http://islammemo.cc/akhbar/Somalia/2011/01/03/114575.html
You are so right about misinformation coming from some media outlets.Thats is why i would never quote them in my write up.we need to be rightly informed if we want to solve this problem.thanks
DeleteA woman who refuses to leave an abusive relationship is simply suicidal.
ReplyDeleteWhen JG announced that the government had been penetrated by boko haram, it was an open and direct invite from him to the people to come and rescue the nation.
In the building of modern Nigeria the north have nothing to offer, don't waste time with them.
The hausa-fulani should drop this Arabism and look for their true prestine African-ness. Go back to your roots.
The truth os that they do have something to offer, from the agricultural and mineral resources but the truth is that religeon should never be mixed with politics.thanks
DeleteDon't you feel, icecoldhart, that if we spilt, every faction will be forced to develop the potentials in them? The North will go and develop again their groundnut pyramids, the West will go back to Cocoa, Rubber and palm Oil, the East will also develop the resources they have and we begin to export among ourselves as the need arises.
DeleteIt is too soon to talk about the split in Sudan; whether it is doing them good or not. The Southern Sudan had endured decades of deprivation and they should not be expected to rise from zero (minus, actually) to the mountain top in such a short period.
Nigeria is not as bad because all regions have felt the government in one way or the other. Poverty is said to be worse in the North than in many other parts of the country. But remember that the North has ruled Nigeria for much more years than any other part of the country. The Northern leaders have oppressed and impoverished their own people. They would have successfully done the same to the whole of us if they had been able to convince us to dedicate ourselves to Islamic (or Christian religious) studies alone. But other parts of the country embraced Western education and the industrialisation, creativity, freedom of expression and positive self esteem that comes with it. We are not subject to the whims and caprices of any spiritual head as is common in the North.
If we split, I believe that the northern youth will see the slavery into which their leaders have put them in the name of religion. They will be able to appreciate that they did not become poor because the Nigerian government neglected them. They will see clearly where the problem is and they will face it squarely and revolt; much like what happened throughout the Arab world last year. They will then apprecicate the rest of us and realise that we are not sinners afterall but good people who are carrying out the will of our Creator to replenish the earth by contributing our own quota to make it a better place than we found it.
lets all be on our own, as we did not need each other, if it works fine, if it didn't?, then we'll have no one to blame.
ReplyDelete