Divided by democracy

Would life be easier for Christians if we woke up and found that all Muslims have vanished? Would life be easier for us Muslims if we woke up and found all Christians gone? Can we have a Kano without Ibos, or a Nigeria without Kano and Kaduna, like waking up to find PDP is no more, all the crooks have vanished from APC; these questions sound a bit silly but they are the true test of our appreciation of our slaughterhouse mentality, especially recently in Lagos, the North, the Niger Delta and the nation as a whole.

Does the killing of one another bring back the already dead? No, it only berths a circle of revenge, vengeance, retaliation, retribution and the madness continues. Sequel to the present excuse we call democracy, the very fabric of this society called Nigeria has been strained by crisis in the ethno-religious field and so many people are benefiting and in cases, investing in the misfortune, especially those obsessed with the quest for power, our leaders who are ready to invest in poverty, death, ignorance do so without recourse to the same God we use as an excuse in our exercise of dissipating our population.

INEC declares Kano governorship election inconclusive

Every election cycle leaves this country further strained, as we have not seriously explored the narratives and conversations to point of analysing the content and substances that precipitate them. Instead, we do a confused labeling of very direct issues. No one of us took the decision to be Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba; we are Nigerians who happen to be Christians or Muslims and pagans.

Settlers, landlords, landowners, migrants, indigenes are words, which have become familiar in our national discuss for no good reason. With no clear-cut nor precise meaning; despite our religious intolerance of the recent past with one another, a major player in our crisis-ridden drive towards attaining nationhood has been the ethno-related disgust we habour for each other. This situation has facilitated the growth of mutual suspicion. A Yoruba man presupposes he is more Nigerian than the Ibo man and the Ibo thinks so of his Hausa counterpart and the ball rolls further with others crying foul on the counts of marginalisation.

The truth is that every nation has its own peculiar ethnic issue but how have we as Nigerians made an effort to manage our diversity. The term, ‘unity in diversity’ has remained a political coinage. Our ethnic difference has rather done us more harm. That we have to redefine our ethno- understanding is an understatement. We have been robbed of meritocracy, excellence and unity, we are still battling favouritism, federal quota, catchment areas and such plenty nonsense in a world that is consistently getting smaller through globalisation and the need to fight a collective cause.

The Nigerian leadership is yet to produce a system of governance that can explore our differences ,only leaders who have simply made long speeches to the point of confusing themselves. As Nigerians, we should be thinking of how we can move together, strive to build a strong, united nation where everyone needs the other person.

Prince Charles Dickson PhD

[email protected].