United We Stand

Posted by davidluiz in Headline, Political

It was John F. Kennedy that said, “The unity of freedom has never relied on uniformity of opinion” and Adlai E. Stevenson reaffirmed this same position in stating that, “freedom rings where opinions clash.” Unity is not always a function of singularity of opinions or ideology.


In this famous ancient story of the old man and his sons, after so much had been put into settling differences among his sons, this old man decided to teach his sons a lasting lesson, he got a stack of broom-sticks, handing each son one broom-stick, he instructed them to break it. Easily each one could snap it and break it up. He collected about a hundred sticks from the stack, tied it up, he handed it to each man, one after the other, instructing each one to break the stack, they all tried to break the stack of broom-sticks, but none succeeded in the attempt. As he tried to make them understand the purpose for the exercise, he was able to drive this point into the minds of this boys, ‘singly you can achieve so much as your effort can drive you, but to achieve more you’ve got to work as a team – in unity.’


Their individual opinions was not the criteria for their unity, their ideologies too didn’t have anything to do with their achieving more in unity; all that was necessary was a unity of purpose to achieve their collective goals. Thomas Carlyle – speaking on unity said, “men’s heart ought not to be set against one another, but set with one another, and all against evil only” This way there would be hope for progress on set goals.


We proceed into the journey towards the Golden Jubilee of our independence, yet we struggle to stand as a nation, other nations as old as we are, have attained greater height than we have, many of them thrive and build on things they got from our country, like Malaysia, learnt the technique of making oil from kernels from our country, today we buy oil from them. Since then, some of these nations have become part of the strongest economies in the world, building on foundation blocks they got from our nation. India, Singapore, Taiwan, through an investment into qualitative education these countries have become locations for medical tourism and cheap medical solutions. We’ve got a long way to go to get there, if we walk at this pace.


Since the civil war, we lost the sense of unity and peace needed for progress, if at all we ever had that sense. The common idea in the years of military junta was that a democratic government will bring the solution to our numerous challenges. We’ve got a democratic government for 10 years now, and we’re pretty much worse of today than we were 10 years ago. It’s been 49 years since our independence, 39 years since the war; we have not still got solutions to the fundamental reason for the war. We still dwell on the premise on which the British declared us a sovereign state; the foundation set by the amalgamation in 1914, which we understand from history to be a faulty union. The civil war was an opportunity to make the necessary correction that will make for unity and progress, but unfortunately, our story is that of betrayal and prejudice, making our nation to loose its international presence.


Too soon, we forget the pains of the war because of power, influence and money, we forget the important lessons from the wars, the unity we should have pursued was replaced with betrayal, deceit and prejudice; today just as the story of the old man an his sons, we have been able to achieve so much as individuals, corporations, communities, ethnic groups, tribes, faith-based organizations, and so little as a nation.


Some still think we are better divided than together as a nation, because of our differences, but I think differently; because if for differences Brazil also has a similar ethnic collection as we have in our nation, and they still remain a great country, breaking new grounds. So I believe we can get beyond our differences and achieve great things together.


As long as we remain divided, we cannot achieve much. As an independent student of history, I sought to find at some point in my study a place where a stronger union would be formed as a dividend of the war, instead I found more division, betrayal, lack of trust, deceit, and prejudice. I held the opinion for long that our leaders had no clue on what should be done based on their levels of education, making it nearly impossible for us to recorded significant landmarks in our nation’s history; I thought if we had educated leaders things would be better, little did I know, the nation under this so-called educated leaders was going to move from bad to worse. This reality brought to fore, a truth that I had always known ‘schooling refines only education enlightens.’ The ones I called educated had just been schooled and were not enlightened thereby lacking the understanding of what should be done to move the nation forward; hence our nation has achieved very little since independence.


As we celebrate the independence – because I believe we’ve got a reason to celebrate, we are a sovereign state – I will like to share a few thoughts, in a bid to renew our commitments to our nation in our varying capacities. From our national anthem:


“…the labours of our heroes past shall never be in vain…”
“…to serve with heart and might, one nation bound in freedom, peace and unity”
“…in love and honesty to grow and live in just and truth…”
“…Great lofty heights attain, to build a nation where peace and justice shall reign”


From the preface of the Constitution of the US:


“…to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide a common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity….”


At a time like this, I think we should move past our differences, beat the urge to base justice and truth on a federal character, which promotes prejudice and lack of professionalism. In search for a way forward, we must remember the labour of our heroes past and commit to building the nation they fought with their lives for its freedom; serve with all we can to ensure freedom, peace and unity for all. Shun every strand of disloyalty, division and betrayal; provide opportunities for love and honesty to grow. So that as a nation together we will stand, achieve more and ensure the blessings of Liberty for our posterity.


Daniel Webster says, “One country, one constitution, one destiny. We shall be great.”


In the words of John Wesley, “Do all the good you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.” If together we try in our little ways to do give attention to this admonition, our nation will be the desire of many, and a blessing to the world.


God bless the Union of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.