2015: Before The Hammer Falls And Doom Speaks

As I writer and blogger with social interest I have wept more than my written words. Wept for Nigeria, for the millions of unborn children who will be born into the fraud called Nigeria, wept that Nigerians have kicked against the advice of the famous American Philosopher George Santayana that 'those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it'. Wept that we take a thousand step forward and a billion step backward as a nation and yet our ruinous dealers at the corridors of power have continue to hold us hostage along ethnic and tribal lines.

I for one, have no cause to fall in love with tribalism and ethnicism two deadly monsters threatening to pull down the protective buffer of our country. For me, this twin evil is a stock-in- trade for mediocre and apostles of fatalism and retrogressive status quo. Yes, a good writer like a good story teller has something to offer his society. However, it must be something that units and send division into oblivion, something that heals, something that build bridges and destroys the wall of mediocrity, ethnicism and tribalism. And this has been the 'kpim' of my pen apostolate.

My sojourn to the Republic of Cameroun in my teenage years is something I will always appreciate. From Tiko to LImbe,Bamenda and Bafoussam. Yaounde to Sangmelima the experience was refreshing. Cameroonians don't discuss tribe and religion all that matters was the fact that they were Cameroonians'. It was not out of place to find a Muslim as a governor of a predominantly Christian province in Cameroun.

Cameroonian seems to share this trait with new generation Rwanda's. After the 1994 genocide, Rwanda's learnt that evil seed of ethnicism sowed by the beastly colonialist in 1916 bears no good fruit. The Belgian colonialist in adherence to the old Roman philosophy of 'divide et impera'( divide and rule) had introduced ID card according to ethnic nationalities dividing the hitherto united people into Tutsi and Hutu. This evil also crept into Burundi and like in Rwanda, it leads to a bloody civil war between Tutsi's and Hutu's of the same catholic Faith.

The good thing about Rwanda's is that they learnt their lesson though in a bitter way. How I wish Nigerian youths will learn to learn their lesson like Rwanda's. One may kiss the moon, hug the sun, vomit gold and diamond but will know who is a Tutsi or Hutu between two Rwanda's. In my days in Cameroon, we had two Rwandan course mates who hanged around each other like bread and butter.

I alongside my Friends from Tchad, Congo DR , Gabon and central African Republic wasted our wisdom and time trying to find out who was Tutsi and Hutu among them. Their patriotism and unity was second to none. This is an enviable feat I dream and wish that Nigerians can achieve. I see no reason and will never find one to canonize the dirty fact that Nigerians choose to be pumping tribalism and ethnicism in the polity like the squirrel of the tree carries seed to its net. Last time I checked, poverty and penury that are legacy of our shameless political elites is no respecter of tribal or ethnic identity.

From kano to Ibadan, Asaba to Jos, Nsukka to Maiduguri the effect of the marauding, pillaging, kleptomaniac, squandamaniac and vampiric ruling class have reduced us to a laughing stock in the comity of nation, denying us our pride and dignity. The funniest thing is that when our idiotic politicians sit to conspire against the masses and rape the treasury, the so called Ibo, Hausa and Yoruba divide develop wings.

The deep hatred and suspicion should not exist among us if we want to build a Nigeria we can be proud of. When we board a bus, eat in the restaurant and consult medical personnel do we insist the driver, chef and doctor must be from our tribe? If I can visit Yola and kiss Zainab, hug Isioma in Asaba and danse with Tosin in Ibadan who can dispute the fact that humanity is one? I think the wisdom of Waldo Emerson cannot be truer here. 'All lives are being caught up in an inescapable network of mutuality and tied up in a single garment of one destiny.

Whatever affect one directly affects all in directly' Before my candle goes to bed and darkness invade my tiny room, let me make haste to bring the former American President Bill Clinton to the Square 'your religious diversity and your ethnic diversity is a great opportunity if we find unity in our common humanity. If we can learn not only to tolerate our differences. if we are turn by our differences, then we become less than the sum of our part.' As 2015 approaches, we must face her with a wazobia mindset. The biggest challenge before us is that of putting away ethnicism and tribalism in front of the ballot box. May the hammer of 1967 never fall again and may doom remain dumb in Nigeria.

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Articles by Eze Martins-hassan Esomchi