TheCable

Some hours ago, after some Christians were beheaded by the “Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP)”, Mr. President appealed to Nigerians not to allow those devils in human skin to divide us along religious line, as if we have ever been united as a nation since the Union Jack was lowered in 1960. Nigerians have never been united! Because what unites a nation is a vision and we do not have one yet!

How can a nation that its language is not one be united as an effect of our varied selfish ambitions? Every nation that is united on earth has one. They speak one language of vision and purpose. We have never spoken one language of purpose and vision as a people—from morning till night.  In everything we do, we do not put our nation first. This is what our leaders have been modeling since the Union Jack was lowered fifty-nine (59) years ago!

On the condition that you want to know how terribly-divided we are as a nation, a short-trip to the town of social media will help you a great deal. The only thing that gives us a semblance of unity is football and for a while now, a lack of visionary leadership is fast destroying the only thing that brings our people together. Today, most Nigerians have even forgotten that we do have a senior national team, “Super Eagle.”

What politicians have been doing for decades is what terrorists are trying to do today. While I do know that PMB does not know what is probably does not really know what’s happening beyond what they told him, it is our job to let him know the true state of things in our polity, if he care to know at all. As it is right now, we cannot build the Nigeria of our dreams, because nothing can be built on the foundation of disunity and disagreement. National-cohesion on the lips of both the leaders and led is only on paper! And anyone who says we are united as a people is only deceiving himself or herself.

Nigeria is not only divided along religious-line, it is also divided along ethnic and political-lines. No matter what a Northerner does, his fellow brothers and sisters would shield him or her, because as far as they are concerned, they are first Northerners before being Nigerians, if they see themselves as Nigerians at all. The same thing goes for other tribes. The only tribe that is a bit not sectional is Yoruba when it comes to shielding looters, but they do have their own myriad and numberless of issues too. Their leaders are a bunch of self-interested people, who are selling the future of their unborn generations as an effect of money that grow wings and fly away and political-power that is transitory and fleeting. This is so sad!

The more states we create in Nigeria, the more divided we become. When people rise to agitate, you would think they are doing it for their voiceless-people, but in the long run, you would find out that they hate and detest their own people—even more than those oppressing their people. When some folks from a part of our land rose to fight the Federal government of Nigeria, saying they were being disenfranchised, you would think they love their people. In an attempt to solve the problem, the Federal government decided to create a special ministry for them, but instead of them using it to solve the varied problems of those they said they were agitating for; they have been using it to enrich themselves, while their people are getting poorer by the day.

Another thing that divides us is religion, empty religion. When it comes to religion in Nigeria, our people suspend their brains. We are so religious, but we are very God-less. We love religion, but our hearts are full of hate. We go to both Mecca and Jerusalem to throw stones at the Satan and climb Mount Sinai, but our way of life has refused to change since the baby of Nigeria was put to bed.

You can milk Nigerians dry and those affected the most would keep quiet, on the condition that you are a member of either their mosque or church. Politicians rig elections and after that, they go to some—churches and mosques—to share ‘testimonies’ and our oppressed and depressed religious-people would say that no one can get to power without God knowing about it. And those sharing those hogwash-testimonies—know that the one who helped them is not God. We claim to know God, but we do not have a clue on how He works.

Baba needs to be told that politicians in Nigeria cannot win elections and continue to be in power without doing anything worth mentioning, significant and noteworthy without using the ugly-tools of religion, ethnic and politics. When a politician is arrested after using his office to enrich himself, he screams that he is being persecuted because he is either a Muslim or Christian and the poor people of Nigeria would go on social media exchanging e-blows because of someone who hates them.

For the umpteenth time, we have never been united as a people. And until Nigeria comes first before our villages, political parties and religion, we aren’t going nowhere as a people. I hope Baba is able to unite us before he finally returns to Daura in 2023. But as it stands at this moment, it is a lie for anyone to say that our people are united.