#StopXenophobia #TheNigerianProblem #SouthAfrica
Quote: 'We are United by necessity but divided by conspiracies and hate'.
One's country, state, community or Village can be great only when it is allowed it to be.
Sometimes majority of people might want prosperity but it takes a few bad egg to ruin the effort being made by many and using Nigeria as a case study; there is increase intolerance in Nigeria.. Like a wise man said: 'We are united by necessity and divided by conspiracy,hate, and politics'.
This is why we hate one another a times and then pretend we don't hate ourselves other times. Why don't the hate come to play when we are doing business? Or other issues important to us? You see! Necessity?
Ebuka of Igbo extraction from Predominantly Christian South Eastern Nigeria is selling raw materials in Predominantly Muslim Northern Nigeria and need Ahmad from the North to make him rich. Adamu of Bureau de change exchanging dollars in East need Chukwuemeka to patronize him..Audu in South West Nigeria wants Olamide to patronize his business. At that point; We laugh and talk; ofcourse we need the business- We need the money flowing.
Then once we are home. Ebuka relaxes in front of his laptop or phone and writes up long hateful speech about Adamu's tribe... how they are useless, how they are terrorist and they do not contribute anything to Nigeria; meanwhile Ebuka's wife is probably in kitchen preparing rice and stew using tomatoes and other ingredients including meat that was made possible by Adamu's tribes effort to feed the nation and Ebuka is probably living in a comfortable house and driving a good car because of Adamu's tribe buying things from him yet they are useless?... Adamu composes about how Ebuka's tribe are kidnappers, cultist and baby factory making it seem like they are all monsters ..Olamide from South West isn't left out. He attacks Ebuka and Adamu's tribe on how they are problem of Nigeria and do not contribute anything but his states economy is very vibrant- courtesy of Ebuka and Audu's people investment In his state.. Ebuka and Adamu then calls Olamide dirty and ritualistic. You see? The trend continues and they succeed in passing their hateful nature to their innocent children.
The next day, Olamide opens up a firm and only Ebuka can give him the services he needs to make it prosperous. He smiles and pretends like just yester-night he wasn't online condemning Ebuka's tribes and generation.
If we can be united by necessity? Why cant we try to also be united by our diversity? Let that which unites us be greater than that which divides us.. but it takes our determination to achieve this. Words are cheap, Action is the real deal!
Hate mongering doesn't just affect the person you are hating; it also affects you..sooner or later; it always comes back to bite you. Sometimes even far harder.
In some part of the Northern Nigeria, clashes between tribes or different religious group occur sometimes. You see, this kind of thing ruins the possibility of violent prone states to be great... Foreign investment is hampered.. Tourism is put on hold and brilliant minds are kept away from developing the state. No one wants to go to place where their business or life is put in danger and those in the state that have potentials flee to find places they can achieve greatness. It takes few minority in this state to ruin the image of majority and the state at large. And no matter the efforts made by the state government(s) to attract investments or tourist(both local and foreign); it is hard.
Now in similar case; We have this in some other parts and on international scene, we have South Africa slowly starting to ruin their image.. The constant Xenophobic attacks on African migrants is threatening to derail years of effort to make South Africa one of the great countries in Africa but how can you be great when you have slowly started to chase brilliant minds, potential developers and investors out of your country?
Call for nationalism is slowly threatening the little efforts made over the years to integrate the world... however, nationalism is relatively new to Africa but increasingly growing in South Africa. We must fight to protect human dignity and right of migrants abroad and most importantly, this fight must start from our own country's with different tribe or religious group hating and being intolerant of one another. In the end; the world is only as good as we want it to be.. When we push for hate and violence; we get it in return. We only blame ourselves for our own problems.
#StopXenophobia #UnitedForJustice.
By Eedris Chijoke Ngene.
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