Nigeria: Let’s think unity
(Nigeria) By Odimegwu Onwumere
Peace and unity, reconciliation and forgiveness are what we
Nigerians should stand to acknowledge through wisdom, kindness, liberty,
justice, fairness, love, work to overcoming the negative through the creation
of a positive mindset that would lead us to a positive environment.
We knew that there is more power in unity than in division,
more to love than in hate. I read a story by a lady who said in the following
lines: “Once when I was young, maybe more than once, when I was extremely
disrespectful to my mother, my father angrily called me "garbage" in
our native Hokkien dialect.
“It worked really well. I felt terrible and deeply ashamed
of what I had done. But it didn't damage my self esteem or anything like that.
I knew exactly how highly he thought of me. I didn't actually think I was
worthless or feel like a piece of garbage.
“As an adult, I once did the same thing to Sophie, calling
her garbage in English when she acted extremely disrespectful toward me. When I
mentioned I had done this at a dinner party, I was immediately ostracized. One
guest named Marcy got so upset she broke down in tears and had to leave early.
“My friend Susan, the host, tried to rehabilitate me with
the remaining guests.
"Oh dear, it's just a misunderstanding. Amy was
speaking metaphorically-right, Amy? You didn't actually call Sophie
'garbage.'" "Um, yes I did. But it's all in the context," I
tried to explain. "It's a Chinese immigrant thing.”
This is typical of our country, Nigeria . We are like the lady and
her father in the story. We have been called ‘garbage’ and in return, we call
those who called us ‘garbage’ the same. But two wrongs, they say, do not make a
right.
It is my wish that if there is any website we must host
about Nigeria ,
that website must be for peace and unity. Not for bitterness. We already have
the 2015 elections in our hand, yet we seem not to be after the issues that
matter to our collective welfare, but our different political parties and
interests.
We cannot achieve harmony, peace and happiness as well as
spiritual, social happenings in Nigeria
if we do not shelve hatred by the side and welcome all and sundry as one. Just
as it is written in the bible, so also it is written in Koran and in other
writs.
According to religious scholars: Islam teaches us through
its two main authentic sources: The Glorious Qur’an and the Prophetic sayings
that we can attain peace of mind, happiness, and salvation, by knowing and
believing in the one true God (Allah) willingly and wholeheartedly… (Am only
quoting the book…).
Our universality requires that we embrace unity and love and
forgive all who may have offended us in one way or the other and also go to
plead for forgiveness from those we may have offended. It is written: “Submit
yourselves therefore to God.” (God here to me means peace and unity,
reconciliation and forgiveness, wisdom, kindness, liberty, justice, and
fairness, love, work… Not a sky daddy).
And when we submit ourselves respectively to God, we will
not see members of the different political parties as rivals, but as Nigeria
sons and daughters. We will work in tandem as one family for the growth of the
country.
We should not be behaving like those who are far away from
civilization. Nigeria
is ours and should not be made a jungle of a sort due to our different
political aspirations and interests. When we look up far off in the distance,
we would see hope. But no one can bring the Utopian world around us if we do
not work towards having such around us and making sure that we bring it.
It is not a Spartan babble that this treatise is made up of.
We have to be in the front string to build the very-well towers. We cannot
continue to fight with narrow minds. We must compel ourselves to change our
mindsets about what we think our country should be. We should outgrow the level
of bickering and tinkering and looking for whom to make prey.
I beseech all and sundry to pursue excellence and stop this
argument, this fusion of wars, but focus on the way forward for the country. We
are a great people that should not rub mud on the face and yet looking for who
to correct.
One Chuck Palahniuk said: The trick to forgetting the big
picture is to look at everything close-up. The shortcut to closing a door is to
bury yourself in the details. This is how we must look to (providence). As if
everything's just fine.
It is time we knew that escaping from turbulent situations
in our country, if we allow them to occur; we are not going to face them with
smiles on our faces. We would know that peace is always better to troubles.
Muhammad Iqbal has warned humanity to rise above sectional interests and private
ambitions... Pass from matter to spirit. Matter is diversity; spirit is light,
life and unity.
Like the lady in the above story was reconciled to her
friends after she was ostracized, I would therefore suggest that as a matter of
urgency we have to tow the line of peace and unity, reconciliation and
forgiveness, wisdom, kindness, liberty, justice, and fairness, love, work… in
order to settle ones and for all, the political brigandage in our bellowed
Nigeria.
We have to take a clue from the statement by Yehuda Berg,
which suggests: I do believe that the original sources of all religions should
be taught, because with that we will find our similarities, not just our
differences. I believe that if Mohammed, Buddha, Jesus, and Moses all got
together they would be best of friends because the spiritual basis of all
religions is something that builds unity.
* Odimegwu Onwumere, Poet/Writer writes from Rivers State.
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