One Nigeria
Tribalism and religion have been the excuse for a failed Nigeria. We have even been made to believe that we need to be separated according to our tribes before there can be peace in the country. The events of the past few days have proved those ideology wrong as we don’t need to eliminate each other to survive. Our differences can be set aside to achieve a common goal. Setting our differences aside does not mean we are not aware of the existence of the differences but that we can accommodate our individual differences to achieve a common goal.
The individuals who started the #EndSars protest are not the same persons, they have different attitudes and perspectives on life. They had their differences but it did not stop them from raising their voice to fight. Everyone irrespective of their tribe and religion has offered themselves and their skills to fight this cause, what other example do we need to verify that One Nigeria is possible!
To the gist of today, I was on the bus with a couple of passengers discussing the protest and traffic. The discussion started when one of the passengers was complaining about the traffic caused by the protest and he also added that they can’t be angry with the protesters since they are fighting for the common good of the people. I kept quiet and was looking as per the usual me that don’t like to involve myself in public discussion of politics.
This same person shared a story about how a woman and her family were kidnapped and transferred it to how Yoruba and Hausa tribe are the main problems of the country. That was when I knew I had to soro soke. I allowed him to land and allowed myself to finish my drink because I was tired and exhausted from the long walk and needed the energy from the drink and started my talk.
I started by making him/them understand that that mindset is wrong and how that was what our political leaders want us to think so we can be at each other's throat and see them as our only savior. Tribalism has been allowed to eat deep into the system that we no longer have regard for anyone outside our tribe and religion. I reminded them of how the protest started and those that started it. It was not started to promote a tribe and religion, it was started because people were fed up with what was going on in the country, and the fight to end police brutality in Nigeria was a perfect starting point.
This literally means that it is possible for us to live in peace and unity with one another irrespective of our differences. We are not going to ignore the religious differences or culture or tribe because they exist but we will live together in peace and unity. I even intentionally dropped that the young generations are challenging the status quo on inter-tribal marriage. You fall in love with a person and not their tribe so there is no big deal with getting married to someone from another tribe.
With this my point, the next person picked it up and said I was right and that we have a problem because Christians don’t allow their children to marry the other faith and the other faith doesn’t also permit their children to get married to Christians. I wanted to remind him of “Do not be unequally yoked with an unbeliever”, but he didn’t look like a Christian instead I told him point-blank that I am a Christian and I can never get married nor date an unbeliever, (it is spiritually wrong. 2nd Corinthians 6:4) and I told him accepting our differences does not necessarily mean we have to get married to each other.
Our accommodation of differences goes beyond getting married, it is accepting each other and working together to achieve a common goal. It also include respect and honor for other people. You can have these people at your workplace, as friends, as neighbors, your boss, your employee, and comfortably be at peace with each other.
If we can make provisions to accommodate everybody to protest against bad governance in Nigeria then we can accommodate everybody irrespective of their tribes and religion and live peacefully.
We can live in peace with our differences and not ignore its existence. Even as humans we have different characters, different backgrounds, different perspectives on life, and attitudes and that did not make us despise each other but we are able to love irrespective of our attitudes and behaviors. Give other tribes a space to live around you, don’t despise people because their ideology is different from yours.
Stop hating others on behalf of what does not exist.
Just so you know, there is a reason why God created man to fit into different tribes, religion and culture. If he wanted everybody to belong to the same tribe he would have done that at the start of creation.
so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other. Romans 12:5
P.S- Soro Soke means Speak Up in Yoruba Language.
