Substituting truth for Politics

I have taken a careful look at the ongoing crisis of deportation within the country and have somehow refused to join issues with anybody on it. This is greatly because almost everybody I have heard is speaking from a biased point of view. Reading Fani_kayode’s article on this issue also broke my heart. A supposedly respected citizen like him shouldn’t have written such inciting article especially at this time when tension is rising among all parties involved. The other day Akwa Ibom state allegedly deported people to Lagos, so as Cross River state.

The main issues that needs to be discussed here are “are there laws on these deportations? If there are no laws, what necessitated these deportations? How are the processes of these deportations managed?”. These are issues that need to be addressed instead of politicizing this issue. Some people in my office are of the opinion that the Igbos should go back to their land and leave Lagos alone (none of these persons are from Lagos though they are Yorubas).  Others pray for the splitting of the country into 3 parts i.e. Southwest, North and South-South/ South East. Ironically these people are young men and women who should be the future of this country. And I ask: “Are the many ethnic groups in our country our problem or is separation/ division of the country the solution”?

My answer to the two questions above is “NO”. The reason for my answer to both question is the same. Ethnicity has never been our problem rather it has been our only hope. Separations will never be a solution rather it will be the beginning of a  more complex problem. Let me break it down. Umuleri and Aguleri (border towns) have been up in arms since God knows when. These are two Igbo communities that have almost everything in common. Ijaws and Itshekiris have been enemies for a very long time. Ife and Modakeke are two towns that have been in crises since I was born. Bokoharam which claims to be fighting for the Muslims is bombing mosques and killing Muslims. Rivers state crisis where almost all parties involved (including the first lady) are from Rivers state. These are just some of the intra crisis rocking group of people with the same ethnicity and/or religion. If the country is divided, these groups will undoubtedly remain together and these fights will worsen. Abia state government sacks non-indigenes from their civil service and nobody is making an issue out of it. If any southwest state does the same it will surely become an issue. Does these mean that we select what we want from a group of related bad scenarios?

My good people, our real problem is GREED and SELF-CENTEREDNESS. These vises gave birth of the politics of corruption and bigotism. Let us stop politicizing issues that affect us directly as well as issues that will affect our unborn generation. When we hear young people speaking of dividing the country or supporting deportation of Nigerian citizens or laying more emphasis on their  ethnicity and/or religion than on the good of the whole country, then we know that the future of this country is as oblique as our present state. When you hear young men and women basing their choice of a candidate based on ethnicity/ religion instead of on integrity and a proven record of industriousness; then we know that our problem is far from being solved. Let us learn to treat issues with Nigeria as a whole in mind, with our future and the future of the unborn generation in mind.