UNITY, THE BEDROCK OF NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

UNITY, THE BEDROCK OF NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

By Epunumokumo E. Dei (Written in 2016)

“One love, one heart… Let’s get together and feel all right.”- Bob Marley.
“We are each other’s harvest; we are each other’s business; we are each other’s magnitude and bond.”- Gwendolyn Brooks.
“The two legs can’t make a move if they don’t agree; the move is the result of unity or agreement; and the move is development.”- Master Dei.

Unity as it were, is the state of being one undivided entity. The emphatic word is entity. This brings to mind the fact that unity has to do with the merging of differences or different individual units to be an indivisible whole. This is achieved through agreement and mutual understanding among the individual units; and when unity is achieved, development of the units and their members and the entity as a whole becomes easy. This is true as no one unit would be suspected by one the other. It means therefore that, unity fosters development. Now, development here means progressive growth at all levels—ranging from human capital development to infrastructural. It also involves all forms of development such as socio-economic, cultural, political, scientific/technological cum industrial development, which are measured by the productive capacity and material well-being of the individuals of the collective whole. This is what development is about and this is how it is measured. A critical look at the developmental situation of Nigeria would reveal that one can’t quite tell if she is experiencing progressive growth, stagnation or even underdevelopment—that is, retrogressive growth. This is true as the economy is almost totally dependent on foreign economies; we produce virtually nothing on our own and even the indigenous manufacturing industries such as the sugar industries, textile industries, cocoa industries and even the oil refineries that were built have been abandoned. The worst of it all is the looting of the national resources. And all these are traceable to the disunity at play among the different ethnic groups which has bred so much greed and selfishness among the leaders. It is on this light we would be looking at how we can live in unity, what things to avoid, the choice for unity and a call on the youths as the leaders of tomorrow to be propellers of unity.

“We are all equal in the fact that we are all different. We are all the same in the fact that we will never be the same. We are united by the reality that all colours [, individuals, ethnic groups] and all cultures are distinct and individual. We are harmonious in the reality that we are all held to by the same gravity. We don’t share blood but we share the air that keeps us alive.”- C. Joybell C.
“Like a sculptor, if necessary, carve a friend out of stone. Realize that your inner sight is blind and try to see a treasure in everyone.”- Jalaluddin Rumi

If a people must live in peace and unity to develop themselves and their nation, they must learn to live as one, despite their differences. Najib Razak, Prime Minister of Malaysia outlined four keys to national stability and unity which are: tolerance, mutual respect, guarding of sensitivities and mutual trust. These are virtuous parameters that would engender the development of any nation that subscribes to them. As individuals and as ethnic groups, we must learn to show tolerance and mutual respect for one another—we must learn to accept and be patient with the beliefs, opinions and practices of others as well as respect them. These will not only allow for a practice of different cultures and customs of the different ethnic groups in Nigeria, but they will also allow for celebration diversity.

We must equally learn to guard the sensitivities and sensibilities of others and trust one another for a better nation. We must not touch or play down on sensitive aspects of others such as their religious and ethnic backgrounds. Any such act can easily bring out the raw wrath of the individual or group which would result in religious, ethnic or even 'religio-ethnic' violence as the case may be. Also, we have to learn how to trust one another. Trust is like salt—it sweetens as well as preserves. Consequently, if trust is built among members of a nation, the living conditions of all its members are bettered by the development oiled by unity and the unity is also preserved and development is sustained. So, all four keys outlined by Najib help build unity and the latter becomes the foundation upon which development is built or achieved.

“We are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided. J.K. Rowling.

“The Destiny of Man is to unite, not to divide. If you keep on dividing you end up as a collection of monkeys throwing nuts at each other out of separate trees.”- T.H. White.

As individuals, ethnic groups and especially as youths and leaders of tomorrow, there are things we must learn to avoid. I mean anything that is possible of causing disunity as our strength lies solely on unity. So we must avoid bigotry and greed. These two things are major causes of disunity and underdevelopment in any given nation. Bigotry is discrimination against other peoples and their beliefs; it ranges from individual level to ethnic/racial level. And its forms encompass religious, political/ideological, ethnic/racial bigotry, etc. Consequently, it causes disunity and weakens the polity and economy of nations. Greed on its own part is like bigotry in levels and forms. However, it is sometimes the result of bigotry, so that those in question would only want to favour and enrich themselves to the detriment of the masses and the system. It is one result of the looting in our political and managerial offices; and as it were, it cripples national development in all ramifications. This is because monies meant for the development of human capital and infrastructural development and the like would be constantly siphoned to satisfy themselves and their immediate relatives all because of one word, disunity!

“When there is no enemy within, the enemies outside cannot hurt you.”- Winston S. Churchill.

We might have been blaming the white man for many of our troubles and division, it is high time we looked into ourselves and mend our house. By juxtaposing what things we must do and what things we must avoid, it is crystal clear on the one hand that, we would achieve development and strength if we subscribe to and practice the pillars of national unity; and on the other hand, the constant underdevelopment and weakness in political and economic strength if we continue to practice bigotry and greed. The options are given, the choice is ours. Like the Holy Bible says, “This day, I place before you life and death; choose life that ye may live.” Let us choose wisely; let us choose life; let us choose unity; let us choose development.

Jon Gordon said, "unity happens when leaders are committed to and engaged in the process of building a united, winning team." It is on the preceding thesis I call on the leaders to be epitomes of unity. And most especial is the call on all youths as the leaders of tomorrow to learn how to live in harmony with one another. If a leader is infected with bigotry and greed, there is no way that nation can live in unity. It would suffice here to bring in my personal experience with a corps-member-friend: this guy never showed any sign of respect for my person, ethnic group or opinions. In fact, he was so biased about his dealings that he wouldn’t mind hurting me—he never cared about my sensitivities and sensibilities; but this same young man is so obsessed with leadership. However, I told him to his face that I would never vote for him if he were contesting for the presidency and I would sure work to make sure he doesn’t win if I have the power. I meant what I said because they are the kind killing our nation: they would never be objective in their dealings. And I sure avoided him until I saw some menial changes in him. What I am trying to say is that we all must be embodiment of unity; we must exude unity; we must be classic examples of unity; we must be propagators of unity; we must accept people as they are; we must be objective rather than subjective in our judgments of people and their affiliations. Only then can we build a better society and a better Nigeria.

In all, unity is not the absence of differences; rather, it is the mutual understanding of differences which is the bedrock as well as the oil of national development. Unity is murdered by bigotry and greed but it is brought to life by tolerance, mutual respect and trust. And it is our duty to embrace unity; for united we stand, divided we fall. And of course, to build a better future and a better Nigeria, the youths must be the carriers of the gospel of unity and as well practice it. It is then and only then we would become a better and a greater society.