“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.
