FEATURES When Arewa, IPOB, Oodua youths embraced, declared for one Nigeria
When this training first started, the tension was so glaring. The Hausa people were sitting in one corner, you see Igbo in another corner, the Oduduwa people also sitting in one part of the hall, but two days into the training, people have started mingling together. We now see ourselves as one.”
fulcrum in our experience of nationhood. It has broadened our horizon even beyond Arewa to see how we can embrace our brothers from across the divides to ensure that we redesign our work towards building a true, peaceful united Nigeria where justice is equal for all ,because everybody has a right just as it is enshrined in the constitution to be a part of this journey and to live anywhere in the country.
“We have learnt from this training that you would not achieve anything through abrasive force or through confrontational means. Through the philosophy of nonviolence, dialogue, engagement, you can achieve more ,while we collectively fight for each other for our justice. One thing you would agree with me is that poverty, unemployment, and all those vices bedeviling everybody don’t know our ethnicity, it doesn’t know our religion, it doesn’t care where we live. If you have malaria, there is no Igbo malaria or Hausa malaria. It is the same thing that worries all of us.”
However, what is of paramount importance and a consensus at the training is to relate the message back to their followers. This was a charge the founder of the foundation gave to them. Onyema said, “When the leadership begins to understand issues, things will change. We need to carry this vision down the ladder to members of our group. We need the understanding of everybody. We charge you to be that change we are looking for. The change must begin with me and you. I thank you for agreeing to make Nigeria great. Let the spirit blossom. We will go and come back with renewed vigour to spread our wings from Calabar to Maiduguri, and capture this country in our crusade for peace and non-violence. We stand to gain a lot living together. We have not actually tapped into our potentials. What we need is peace and we can develop our tourism. The north is so rich culturally that we can begin to export the culture. The north has an amiable traditional culture. Why can’t we develop the Sultanate Council for instance? Tourists want to come but they need assurance that there is peace.”
Dr. Bernard Lafayette, the lead facilitator urged the participants to turn their experience into a book. He advised them to live and act by the principle of non-violence even in the face of provocation. “When you get angry, find a chair or seat, sit down and cheer up. When you get quiet in the face of provocation, you take away their power, you attack the force of people, and not them. You don’t snap at them. There is what we call stimulus response. Don’t stimulate your opponents to respond. Allow them to wear themselves out. Strike back with love.”
Also in her remarks, Maria Davydenko, the Political Officer of United States Consulate General asked the participants about the “heaviest thing in this world”. She said, “It is the weight of your potentials. You need one another to lift it.”