In his broadcast to the nation yesterday, President Muhammadu Buhari enjoined all compatriots to work together and see the positives as outweighing the negatives that have dogged our national trajectory since Independence. The President was particular about ethnic and religious divisions that, since independence 60 years ago, have inhibited our growth as a nation. He asked Nigerians to eschew their differences and reap maximally from our God-given differences.
A cursory look at all nations that have developed will show that none has achieved what they have with their citizens divided. America became the behemoth it has since become owing to its respect for the human race, placing human beings on equal footing on the basis of liberty and access to national patrimony. While admittedly in recent years, especially since the advent of the Donald Trump administration, some elements of divisions are emerging, the fact remains it is not a systemic thing, and a large spectrum of Americans are against all manner of racial divisions, which they rightfully believe will only devalue them as human beings and degrade the place of the United States in the comity of world nations.
President Buhari is completely right when he talked about preconceived notions that have continued to fester hatred and other negative narratives dogging our people. A driver will accidentally hit someone from a tribe other than his. Or a religion different from his. And oftentimes in Nigeria, all hell will let loose, with people blindly killing innocent compatriots who happen to be driving on the road. Oftentimes also, Nigerians base their support for our leaders, especially at the national level, on the religion or tribe they subscribe or belong to.
The crisis in Southern Kaduna, for example, keeps festering because of preconceived notions about the place of indigenes and settlers. So also the countless incidences of riots in various parts of Plateau State, which has seen thousands of innocent Nigerians losing their lives oftentimes for things they knew nothing about.
Muslims observing Friday prayers attacked a young woman who insisted in passing through the congregation while prayer was being observed years ago in Jos. And only last year, some Christian youths on the outskirts of Jos also killed a major-general of the Nigerian Army. His offense? He was a Muslim. Yet, the reality is that we hardly have a hand in the religion we subscribe to. A report has shown that over ninety percent of human beings take to the religion of their parents. Only few change them when they grow up.
The National Orientation Agency, an agency that has been doing very little in discharging its important mandate, should be made to reorient Nigerians to see more positives in our togetherness, than the many negatives being paid more attention to, on daily basis in the social media. State governments as well as local government (do they in reality exist in Nigeria?) should work vigorously in infusing this positive vibe in especially young Nigerians, with 72 percent of our national population being 32 years and under.
Political and religious leaders working to divide us should also be severely dealt with by the law, and those of us that they are working hard to divide and confuse should keep a serious distance from them. Leaders should lead by example, while we, the citizens, should support and guide them.
There is deep sense in the time-tested saying that together we stand, divided we fall. May we, as a nation, grow to attain greatness, and may all the afflictions facing us disappear overnight. This is quite achievable and doable, once we decide to co-exist in peace and harmony, devoid of primordial sentiments.