Dear compatriots, I hope you will find space in your hearts to accommodate the message of this short piece. As we usher in the new year, I ask God Almighty to grant us all the grace, wisdom and courage to make ourselves better; and our country, a better place for all of us, our children and children yet unborn.
May we all have the courage to move the country forward, in our individual and collective capacities. May the pain and hate that we hold in our hearts heal and forgiveness reign in our souls.
My fellow Nigerians, I know just as many of you know that this country, Nigeria, our fatherland, has great potential. Apart from human capacities, we are also blessed with all the good things that will make our country the best, not just on the African continent, but the world over. Remember, we are the most populous country in Africa, with over 206 million (two hundred and six million) people across all corners of the country and abroad.
We have excelled in almost every sphere of life; science and technology, health, architecture, arts and culture, business, communication, transport, religion, just name it. We have the Dangotes, Dantatas, Otedolas, Burna Boy and Wizkid. We also have the Anthony Joshuas, Asisat Osholas, Osimhen, Ahmed Musa, Amina Muhammed, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, we have the Jelani Aliyu, to mention but a few.
According to Financial Times, “more than half of Nigerian immigrants (54 percent) were most likely to occupy management positions, compared with 32 percent of the total foreign-born population and 39 percent of the US-born population. Similar Nigerian success is reflected in the UK, where many in the highly educated diaspora work in financial services, IT, and the legal and medical professions.”
One of the common themes for this success is our strong desire to succeed in life and our daily endeavours. One thing I am certain about us is that as individuals and as a people, we don’t want to lose, we don’t want to be behind, we always want to be in the front seat. This urge is what drives us to succeed in our endeavours as individuals and as a people.
My fellow compatriots, to make this country greater, we can channel this positive energy, willingness, urge, desire, courage and wisdom to succeed into one missing aspect, which is the need for love towards one another. Permit me to be a bit religious here, after all it is said that we are the most religious nation on earth. We have Muslims from mostly the North and Christians from mostly the South. The Bible says “love thy neighbour as thy self” and so says the Hadith of the Prophet of Islam, Muhammad (peace be upon him), that “whoever believes in Allah and the last day, should not hurt his neighbour.”
The common similarity of these two quotations is that they were not specific on the kind of neighbour. They did not mention Muslim or Christian neighbours, they did not specify whether we should only love and not hurt our Yoruba, Igbo, Nupe, Tiv, Fulani, northerner, southerner, Kano, Kaduna, Imo, Lagos, Plateau, Benue, Sokoto, Zamfara neighbour. The two scriptures did not choose for us, who is our neighbour.
My dear Nigerians, it pains me a lot that as individuals and citizens, we hate each other so badly, that we want to annihilate one another from the surface of the earth. It pains me that Muslims and Christians are at logger-head, so also the Igbos and Hausas and Yorubas, yet we have the South versus the North.
The rich including the politicians despise the poor, while the poor are abandoned to their fate. And while as a country, we have a common goal to make this country great, we are also hell-bent on another goal, which is to destroy one another.
We are blinded to see the common enemy that is killing and destroying us, and unless we come together to fight this enemy, we will end up one day, entirely destroying ourselves. God forbid. We have many enemies, which need our collective attention and strength; we have our territorial borders to secure, we have the monster of corruption, we have our personal biases, we have terrorists and bandits, we have the economy to deal with, we have the cabals, we have many challenges to overcome as individuals and as citizens, challenges too numerous to mention.
Remember, Nelson Mandela of blessed memory said “No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”
By Abbas Abubakar
