Celebrating What Unites Us
Magnus Onyibe posits that it’s high time religious leaders and traditional rulers across the country seized the initiative from unscrupulous politicians trying to cause division by dwelling on what unites us as a nation
His eminence, Sa’ad Abubakar III, the Sultan of Sokoto’s admonition that God does not make mistakes, must have struck strong chords in the hearts of members of both the Islamic and Christian faiths in Nigeria. The assumption above is underscored by the fact that people of the two major religions believe there is one God. That is a fundamental and critical point of convergence and common ground.
Apparently, President Muhamadu Buhari shares this belief because in his Sallah message he also attributed Nigeria’s unity to God and underscored it with the African proverb which states that “A family tie is like a tree, it can bend but it can’t break”.
So, bringing the almighty God into the issue of a united Nigeria by the Sultan, is a master stroke that’s bound to resonate with the protagonists and antagonists in the current war of words over the vexed issue of whether to restructure or break up Nigeria.
The Sultan seems to have brought in a new perspective which could be referred to as a paradigm shift in the dialogue which has so far featured incendiary comments from both sides of the debate.
The sultan spoke recently at a Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) talk shop in Abuja, where the leader of the Muslim faith in Nigeria sued for a peaceful resolution of the schism through dialogue. He made the case that the formation of Nigeria is divine “because we didn’t fall from the sky, we came from somewhere. We became Nigeria in 1914 through amalgamation. People are shouting that our coming together as a country in 1914 was a mistake, but God doesn’t make mistakes. If God doesn’t want such a thing as Nigeria to happen, nobody could ever have made it happen,” adding that “if restructuring will make life better and convenient, then the think-tank, after their work, would call for stakeholders’ dialogue on the way forward.”
In a nutshell, what the Sultan is advocating is that as a people, Nigerians should celebrate what binds us and not what divides us as we are currently doing by driving a wedge between ethnic groups and religions in the country through hate speech.
Every October 1st, we celebrate independence day. That’s because on that date in 1960, Nigeria secured independence from British colonial rule. But before then in 1914, the northern and southern protectorates of Nigeria were amalgamated by fiat by the British Empire, a momentous occasion which we don’t celebrate.
The Sultan’s perspective is quite illuminating and offers a common ground for dialogue. As we say in Christian marriages: “what God has joined together, let no man put asunder”. And that’s what the highly respected monarch appearing to be echoing. That makes a God focused and sustained path to peace in Nigeria now open for exploration.
To that effect, it behooves on religious leaders of the two major faiths as well as traditional rulers from both the north and the south to seize the initiative from unscrupulous politicians who selfishly exploit Nigerians by dwelling on what divides us more than what binds us as a nation.
To build on Sultan Abubakar introduction of God into the initiative for peaceful and sustainable existence of Nigeria, l would like to recommend the cementing of the marriage between the north and the south by proposing that Nigeria should start celebrating Amalgamation Day.
Obviously, Independence Day celebration became a prominent annual event marked with pomp and pageantry in Nigeria because our former colonial masters, Britain initiated it. Since more often than not, our leaders were led by the nose by the colonialists and are still caught up in neocolonial mindset, instead of having their own initiative of making 1914 an epochal occasion that marked our unification, October 1st 1960 Independence Day, has become one of the most important dates celebrated in our country.
Put succinctly, instead of Amalgamation Day being given a pride of place that it deserves and celebrated as it should, Independence Day has taken centre stage in Nigeria. As a country, we should thank God on that day in our churches and mosques in commemoration.
This is why as a path way to national unity which most Nigerians are yearning for, l am recommending that the presidency without further delay, send to the National Assembly a bill to proclaim National Amalgamation Day to be celebrated by all Nigerians.
That is one way we can focus on the chords that bind us as opposed to dwelling on factors that divide us. To confirm the socio-economic linkages between Nigerians, nostalgic stories have been told of Okonkwo and Sons - a trading point established by an lgbo man in Kano state several decades ago.
The shop grew to become a thriving commercial post that later transformed into a town now known as Kwakwanso. It is from that town that Musa Kwakwanso, a former two times governor of Kano state and now a serving senator hails from.
As a reporter with the Nigeria Television Authority Newsline in the mid 1980s, l followed a cattle trail from the northern to eastern parts of the country and met an Hausa man named Musa in Enugu who was born there when his parents were located there several decades ago in the cause of herding their cattle.
He spoke flawless lgbo and without Hausa accent or inflections to the extent that l could not have known that he was Hausa if he had not been identified as such. He too had started bearing offspring that had become deeply entrenched in lgbo culture and way of life.
If both Okonkwo in Kano and Musa did not find their far flung locations accommodating, they would not have flourished. And if the instances of integration between the Okonkwo in Kano and Musa in Enugu could happen without government intervention or through any significantly coordinated effort, you can imagine how culturally blended Nigerians could have been, had strategic efforts been consistently made by the authorities to cement the relationship which Sultan Abubakar has declared as being divine.
l agree with the monarch because l can relate to the fact that nothing happens without God’s knowledge. To be fair, putting youths through the National Youth Service Corps programme in order to blend culturally by posting them to areas different from their home area was aimed at getting them to understand, integrate and appreciate the cultures of fellow Nigerians in distant locations from home.
But the policy which was introduced in the 1973 now appears to have been derailed from what the initiators had in mind. It has been compromised as youths now try to avoid it. Also, it did not help that NYSC members were engaged in the conduct of election process which endangers their lives.
In fact, some of the youths have been lynched and suffered other untold murderous incidents during and after elections in some states. As such, parents are no longer releasing their children to serve in environments where their lives are endangered. It may also be recalled that the concept of Unity Schools where students from across the geopolitical zones were admitted into schools far from home was also introduced to encourage cultural integration amongst Nigerian youths, but all those noble objectives and initiatives of the golden days of Nigeria have now become memories of the distant past.
So it boggles the mind that authorities are surprised that our youths are spending their idle time cursing out each other on social media platforms. Do we need a rocket scientist to teach us that the way we make our bed is the way we will lay on it? What the foregoing kindergarten rhyme indicates is that we are reaping what we sowed by not preparing our youths to understand and respect each other’s culture and beliefs.
That’s partly accountable for the resort to trading hate speech on social media platforms coalescing into lgbo youths agitating for a Republic of Biafra and Arewa youths giving quit notice to the lgbos.
At the height of their governorship of Delta and Bauchi states, some ten years ago, Governors James Ibori and Ahmed Muazu, led traditional leaders from their states on cultural exchange visits. The initiative which was a positive step towards building of friendship between people of both states was discontinued after both Governors left the scene at the completion of their tenures in 2007. The governor’s forums of the two leading political parties, and the various regional governors’ forums should consider reigniting that positive initiative.
If such forum for enlightenment was in existence, perhaps, the youths from across the north and south would understand each other better and not literarily be at each other’s throat as they currently are.
Democracy is fragile, so we can’t afford to handle it with military force. As Thurgood Marshall, one time Supreme Court Justice of the United States of America, USA once posited “We must dissent, because America can do better, because America has no choice but to do better”. Against the backdrop of the learned American jurist’s comment, dissent is an integral part of democracy. It is high time authorities eschewed militaristic governance style reflected in their crude and poorly formulated draconian policies. Our leaders must start engaging in critical thinking with a view to coming up with democratically acceptable and sustainable solutions for progress in the society and prosperity for all Nigerians.
So, bringing the almighty God into the issue of a united Nigeria by the Sultan, is a master stroke that ought to resonate with the protagonists and antagonists in the current war of words over the vexed issue of whether to restructure or break up Nigeria