Try the other man’s shoes!

If we all lived to the tenets of whatever faith we profess, we would all love our neighbours as ourselves. I have always argued that there is nothing wrong with our stars; it is our refusal to imagine ourselves in the position of others so that we can understand their plight and offer a hand of fellowship that makes our case look hopeless.

I can’t imagine a world where I’d be permanently separated from my friends from the other five zones of Nigeria outside my zone; my comrades from decades of partnership; my relatives by marriage and by blood, my professional colleagues who are blind to the colour of tribe and indeed even acquaintances who have added value to my existence without minding where I come from.

Wherever I find myself in the six zones of Nigeria (and in several places beyond these shores), there are several places I could call home. I have been fortunate to have friends who later became brothers from every part of Nigeria. Long ago, I realised that it was the relationship of ideas that established kinship, not blood.

Last week, a herd of cattle nearly did me in as they literally materialised on the expressway from nowhere. I was so shaken I had to park to regain composure. The herdsmen were all apologies and supplications. As their cattle settled in the pasture across the highway, their leader returned to plead for forgiveness. I asked him why they would refuse to confine their cattle to ranches or specified grazing areas. He told me a long story about how expensive ranching was. “Why don’t you add the cost to the price of your cattle?” I asked. He said it would affect their marketability and that confined cattle would be less healthy than their nomadic counterpart. “So, you’re saying for the rest of our lives we have to live with this menace?” I asked. But he had a ready answer: “Tell government to help us with the ranches and grazing areas.”

I drove off not knowing whether to frown or smile. But I saw the dilemma of the herdsman. He was but a minder; the wealthy owners were elsewhere in comfort. He had cattle to graze and water. His ancestors did before him. But development overtook them along the way. To make the giant leap from nomad to settled ranchers they need help. Do I have to be from the Fulani tribe to appreciate his viewpoint? No.

There is an urgent need for us to try as much as possible to wear the other man’s shoes to understand wear they pinch. Take the recent cry of political marginalisation by Southeast youths. One doesn’t need to have Igbo blood to realise that they are under-represented in the current administration. They are! Some creative revisionists have been trying to rationalise that, but I say what is bad can’t be good. Were Igbos over-represented in Jonathan’s government? I think so. But does that justify reverse marginalisation? No.

That is not to endorse the style, sound and fury of IPOB’s campaign of hate. I am on record to have spoken out against IPOB’s use of language the name-calling, insults and derision. Calling other people, ‘animals’! Nothing can justify that display of what our elders call lack of home training, especially as it blights their campaign for equity and justice.

Also, one doesn’t need to come from Southern Kaduna or Agatu or Ukpabi Nimbo; Ndiagu Attakwu community; Aku; Uzuakoli; Ebem; Akanu; Umuchieze; Offa; Atagba, Lapata; Lagelu; to condemn clashes between farmers and herdsmen and suggest how such conflicts can be averted in future. Writing in Newsweek magazine recently, Prof. Chidi Uguamanam drew attention to the part that climate change plays in the frequent farmers/ herdsmen clashes and concluded: “A national strategy based on innovation, security, sustainability and political will is urgently required.”

But how does one proffer solutions if one is blind to the perspective of the other side, as many of those who have defended the carrying of AK 47 rifles by herdsmen have been?

Take the environmental scandal of the entire Niger-Delta region. If we put ourselves in the shoes of the locals and imagine how whole communities have lost their traditional occupation of fishing due to extensive pollution of the waters; how some communities have lived in perpetual daylight because of gas flaring which also generates sooth that triggers breathing problems - we would be the first to advocate a better deal for these long-suffering people.

And do you have to come from Southern Borno to see the evil in Boko Haram - the terrorist group that kills both Christians and moderate Muslims? Would it have made any difference if Boko Haram was a Christian fundamentalist group?

Take your mind back: some of the authentic heroes of the June 12 struggle - Rear Admiral Ndubuisi Kanu, Col. Abubakar Umar, Ovie Kokori, to name but three, are not Yoruba but because they were men of conscience who fought for justice at great personal costs.

The whole country mourned Maitama Sule at his death because he personalised fellow-feeling. If we want to have a united country, that is what we all have to do more of - wearing the other man’s shoes.

If you are so embedded in your micro-cosmology that the interests and privations of other people are not covered by your radar, you’re no better than an expendable village champion.