Of the things most difficult for
man is cultural integration. Our environments do have a massive impact on our
beliefs and our lives.
One of the best experiences
produced from the core of my nation is the programme called the National Youths Service Corps (NYSC), a
compulsory one year integration and service programme undertaken by every
university graduate in Nigeria, established after the end of the country’s
civil war. It is easy for us to take this scheme for granted, but think about
it: how many friendships it has fostered, how great the unity it has advanced,
how multitude the prejudices it has banished!
We grow in our individual
cultured environments and develop our respective prejudices, fostered by stories
from our communities. We make little effort to verify these conceived opinions
and we learn to live our lives without adjudicating their veracity.
It was a great opportunity for me
experiencing this scheme. It remained one of my best life experiences. I was opportune
to interact with individuals from virtually every part of the country and this
exposure has informed and reformed my attitude towards the subject and
importance of verification. During this time, I met with great men and women
from all across the nation and some of whom their friendships have remained
relevant in my life, even today.
Not that I did not perceive some
of the so-called ills about others and about respective cultures, as picked up from my environment, as others would
definitely have perceived mine, but when we gather a discernment from an
experience from the journey back, we
are not overly surprised about others weakness ( because we have ours), the inspirations we gather from their virtues,
I see, quite outweighs the impact of
their ills, and it was this I determined to build on, and I have not been let
down.
It’s a complex world we live in,
but I’ll rather put myself in a position to be affected positively by goodness
rather than to be harmed by ills, and the capacity to do this lies in the grace
of the journey back. Two things
happen otherwise: Without making this journey back I either think it all a bed
of roses regarding people and thus unknowingly become ‘conquered’ into their
respective ills, that is, if I presume to follow through the perspectives of
people’s peripheral goodness; or else, I become opinionated and join the league
of the expose in having a more prejudiced judgement and distorted biases when I decide to live on the negative perspective of others. So
either way, I end up thus becoming worse
without knowing it, I become so to say, mastered by evil. Give or take, without
an adequate journey back, there is no
going forth.
There is strength in numbers when
we transcend petty bickering. My experience of the NYSC scheme for me did
actually become a “Go On with One Nigeria” (GOWON). What I am passionate about
and indeed want to build on is my discovery about the communality and uniqueness
of Nigerians, the all-round zeal of the Igbos, the creativity from the Niger
Deltans, the easy going attitude of the northerners, the intuitiveness of the
Yorubas, and the sociability from the middle belts.
Historically, Nigeria as a
country is a project borne out of commerce; money was a huge factor in the
amalgamation of respective protectorates by the British. It probably would take
some experience of the journey back,
albeit uncomfortable, to break off the shackles of money and realise the deeper
destiny that we truly have in common. Some have already despaired about this,
but through projects like the NYSC I see hope.
Now, my personal political
conclusion is this: Justice can, or rather should entail concessions and
compromise for the sake of the common good and this often is easier realised in
the arena of charity and humility, otherwise when forced upon, it becomes far
calamitous and drives back the speed of progress.
The civil war is a scandal and is
a thing hard to let go off especially by those most affected by it, but without
the sacrifice of those who fought and gave their lives, wither or thither, the
shackles off money, which is still a work in progress, would have been little
come by, and I see that strength is made perfect in weakness, the foundation of
our country is laid on the blood, not so much of the ‘victor’ who are alive,
but of the ‘vanquished’ who are dead.
On a personal note, the ordeals I
went through during the June 12 saga
has made me value and esteem the more, the democracy project. My passionate solidarity is borne out of this
ordeal which is a memory I shall not let go of because it has built whatever I
have become now and is building that which I will be in the future. I am part
of the job, as important as the President, because the struggle takes place not
so much in the citadel of Abuja as in the heart of man, and because the evils
and corruption of the junta years are not an option for me, I do whatever I can
to join in the solidarity for the emancipation of the spirit of man starting
from my root.
My June 12 ordeal was unwillingly laid upon me, but this struggle was
willingly taken up by others. It is of these heroes, both living and dead, whether
of the June 12 saga or the greater
ordeal of the civil war, that keeps the spirit and soul of Nigeria going. The
labours of our heroes past shall never be in vain: this is indeed a great and
worthy prayer.
I wasn’t born during the Nigerian
civil war, but I was alive during June 12
crisis and I affirm that without such journey back, without such struggle
of the mind, will, soul and intellect, there would have been no democracy for
anybody or the masses. This is the
journey forth; it is all about freedom and liberation!
We have Principalities, bad
ancestors, corrupt institutions and the love of money on whose foundation this
glorious country was laid by the British Empire, to contend with, so the
struggle still continues. And amidst all the ordeals and calamity that beleaguer
our dear nation, I see a positive exodus, a common journey forth towards the
emancipation of the mind, spirit and soul of man out of the shackles of
slavery.
In God’s eyes, this journey is nothing
but positive; only with Him is there actually no Victor and no Vanquished and
in Him only can we go on with one Nigeria.
