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From Okwe Obi, Abuja
The atmosphere was chargd, as the Unity Schools Old Students Association Resident in Abuja (USOSA in Abuja) organised this year’s cultural night and unity ball.
Members from all walks of life and their spouses dressed in their traditional attire converged on the Abuja Continental Hotel. It was a long night of celebration and a moment for friends and classmates to reconnect and bond.
There were also cultural dance, fashion parade, presentation of awards and spoken words by the chief executive officer of Simply Poetry Limited, Dike Chukwumerije.
Beyond the music, dancing and exchange of pleasantries, USOSA president, Michael Magaji, said it was an opportunity for members to X-ray and dissect how to promote national unity and peaceful coexistence in the country.
Magaji observed that, in recent times, the country has been bedevilled by disunity, religious intolerance, leading to kidnapping and killing of innocent people, amid the destruction of property.
He said: “More than 50 to 60 years when the unity schools were established, the idea behind the schools was to promote nation-building and create enabling platforms to bring young Nigerians from all over the country to express themselves, working towards nation-building, understanding, managing our diversity and shaping future leaders.”
He added that the reason for the cultural display was to sustain societal mores and traditions facing existential threats owing to western cultures.
On his part, USOSA team lead, Nnanna Anyim Ude, said the event was put up to celebrate themselves, promote education and chart a common front on how citizens can unite the country.
“USOSA brings together all the alumni associations of unity schools. The essence is not just promote education built on the foundation of national unity, but also in the cities to be able to create community of action that will strengthen the bound of our unity,” he said.
Ude added that the advent of social media had divided cultures and people with false narratives about life and corrupt the minds of young people in particular.
He vowed that they would continue to push back divisiveness in all ramifications through cultural and peaceful evangelism.
According to him, “social media is trying to tear us apart. The hi-tech companies are pushing in algorithms that young people are using to spew hatred and unless you have a group of committed Nigerians who Nigeria has invested in, because Nigeria invested in us, to become apostles of our unity, to become custodians of our national heritage, to become caretakers of our national commons.
“Unless we are able to do that, that investment has failed. This is why beyond the dance, we are here to remind ourselves that after all these, we still have work to do.
“When we go back to our local networks, we should know that our main responsibility is to ensure that Nigeria’s greatness is unshaken and unshakable and our unity is impregnable.
“Like we say in USOSA, we are stronger together. The more we are bonded together the better the country will be.”
One of the recipients of an award and the former Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Chris Musa (retd), implored Nigerians to embrace peace, and to reject external factors capable of tearing up their country.
While making reference to the event, he said: “What we are seeing today is how Nigerians can live together. Different cultures make up Nigeria. That is why unity is very important.
“As Nigerians, you can see how colourful we look, despite our different cultures, traditions and religions, we are all here today.
“That is what Nigeria should be and that is what we want to appeal that we should live together and love our country. Nobody else will do it for us apart from us.”
The guest speaker and chief executive officer of Sterling Bank, Abubakar Suleiman, reminded the former students that part of the social contract they inadvertently signed years ago was to promote unity.
Sulieman stressed that any beneficiary of the Nigerian system, either through scholarships or appointment into public offices who would not fight for the unity of the country has already failed.
He said it was not a choice but a national obligation and spiritual debt to keep the country strongly united.
“Part of the contract that you signed the day that you took the first dime from Nigeria in any form, and I did too, I went to government schools, was that you would fight for the unity of this country.
“It is not a choice, and if you are not fighting for the unity of this country, you are already failing on the terms of the contract that saw you through education. And if you are one of the lucky ones here, please go and refresh that contract. Fighting for the unity of this country was not a choice you made,” he said.
According to him, citizens must look beyond the travails besetting Nigeria, stressing that most of the countries Nigerians envy and glamourise have their own peculiar problems.
“Yes, we all have problems with this country. But our problem is nothing, relative to what 99 percent of these countries have to endure. So we cannot talk.
“We must not talk. Because if we are talking, those people are looking at you and wondering why you are so heartless. Or the case of a parent whose child cannot talk, standing in front of someone who cannot have a child.
“When you think of Nigeria’s problem in that way, you realize that the last thing you must do if you are in this room is complain. But that is just the introduction,” he noted.
He clarified that he was not holding brief for the government as its responsibilities remain the protection of lives and property and to provide basic amenities.
Sulieman added: “I am not here to say to you that you are not working hard or trying; I am saying it’s not working. If it was working, Nigeria would be much better than this. And if it is not working, something has to change.”
