The worst and most devastating of all the vices that mired Nigeria deeply in the slush of its woes are religious and regional sentiments. I really have no ounce of idea as to when it would be learnt by Nigerians the obvious facts that virtue is not only religiously motivated but rather an objective principle in every man inspired by nature.
This does not tend in anyway to draw a line of dichotomy between morality, good virtue and religion, hence the elements are meshed tightly. But when the fact that even a non-religious person is not bereft of virtue and morality, in both the sense of having conceptual framework for good leadership and social interactions, is radically taken into cognizance, one would be fleshed out of detrimental religious and regional sentiments and out of ignorant conception that one’s religion is the basis for all his actions and inactions.
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Owing to the fact that Muslims have the largest percentage of population over the Christians in the North, and that the reverse has happened to be the case in the South, the phenomenon of ”unity in diversity” has been made utopia for political stakes. Having spotted sentiment as the greatest blindspot of Nigerians, the selfish political elite have ever since been using it to manipulate and segregate the masses religiously and regionally by inciting groundless virulent animosity between them for the attainment of their personal goals.
Despite the deep-rootedness of loathsome and unholy religious and regional sentiments in Nigerians, the conclusion that would be reached by even the most sentimental and casual observer over the landscape of Nigerian politicians is that, they are essentially the same; deceptive, over ambitious, morally and religiously corrupt, driven by their voracious and selfish quest for wealth and power, in pursuit of which they revel in disuniting and segregating the masses especially by virtue of religion and region.
However, the most unfortunate, and in view of which one can’t help being pessimistic, is the fact that Nigerians are always benighted by unholy sentiments and prejudices to be repeating the same appalling mistakes over and over again, by making religion and region the most paramount of qualities in a leader, that would place him within the latitude of having their votes, without taking into consideration his competence, broad-mindedness and his readiness and ability to ride the wagon of the nation out of the mire of existential menaces to the dream land.
While it’s certain that no one is absolutely free from sentiments and prejudices, hence everyone is a product of his environment there are certain people who are broad-minded, who weigh things not on the regional and religious scale, and who regard not a particular region but the whole country as their constituency; who are aware of their sentiments and the natural differences between themselves and others, who have nothing to do such affiliations or differences in the course of rendering their service to the state.
Our ship would certainly keep sinking, until unity is taken as a force to be reckoned with, and go beyond the boundaries of prejudices to work for what benefit humanity rather than ourselves and region. Until what poses one within latitude of having our votes are not affiliations or differences but one’s competency to navigate Nigeria as a ship on the verge of being capsized by a myriad of challenges.
Hisham Saleh Gidado sent this from Gombe
