OPINION: Standing up for the aspirations that we believe in by Uthman Oladimeji Nu’akofu
The politics of division is a threat to harmony, writes Nu’akofu Uthman Oladimeji, a native of Ilorin East, Kwara State, Nigeria, who argues that citizens need accountability from their politicians, rather than exploitation of differences.
I was born and raised in Kwara State, Nigeria. I have lived to see the beauty of my country from the celebration of Durbar Fiesta to the beautiful waters of Asa River and River Niger. What makes these features important to us? Is it the strategic political leader, who will preach about policies that they cannot implement about the features or the beauty and amazement that they possess? Today as we are speaking I want us to be emancipated from political slavery and stand up for the truth at all costs.
We can no longer fight each in the name of politics, only to leave our beloved country on its knees. A society that has its morals and lives to the expectations of its inhabitants can never be defeated. We should never at any point disagree on grounds of our ethnicity or political inclination, instead, we must embrace each other. Our forefathers fought so hard with the common enemy of the colonialist for us to have the colossal freedom that we exercise today. How can we again be our enemy?
We all have our challenges but we cannot try to use politics as a scapegoat. If the colour of my skin and my mother tongue can separate me from other Nigerians, then we have to change this mindset. I never chose to be born in a certain ethnic community, nor did you. We all breathe the same air and we all have our different shortcomings, but that does not force us to be at loggerheads with one another. Our struggles are more or less the same. We must not embrace incitement from the political class. Politicians will come and go; they come to drum up support for their aspirations, which are based on political reasons. Politicians may come from the same ethnic tribe as you, but they do not share the same dreams, aspirations, and philosophy as you.
A high number of political parties in the world were formed to support a clique of elites who are rich and want to protect themselves, their families, and their properties. They use us to make sure that they achieve their objectives. Today Nigeria is a country that practices capitalism, where we have the very rich people and the very poor people. The gap that exists between the rich and the poor is so wide that we can only be amazed. What I know is that we do not have 371 tribes in Nigeria. We only have two tribes in Nigeria, and possibly all over the world. The tribe of the rich and that of the poor.
The political leaders will ensure that their sons and daughter study abroad in the best schools so that when they call for violence their beloved ones cannot be hurt. We must raise and fight a good fight; we must embrace each other as common citizens who share the same dream, aspirations, and philosophy. We cannot and must never stand and watch the politicians taking advantage of us; we must stand up and give our people some sense of direction.
We agree that most of the time the political leadership has fought so hard to protect our territorial integrity, make access to basic education affordable, and improve our infrastructure. On the world stage, they are our representatives and they mean a lot to other nations. They are trusted in implementing development projects. We cannot forget their strength, but they need to improve in the above-stated areas.
Today we must make sure that we live up to the expectations of what we can do as responsible citizens, and make sure that the political leadership is accountable in its mandate.
