Still Within Us

Indeed, the major undoing of my people, Nigerians, that have left us in this state where we find ourselves today has been the divide along religious and tribal lines. It is our main enemy and it turns out we're our own enemies. I however am of the believe that some day, which I wish is very soon, we'd get things right.

Last night while in transit, we were held up in traffic hold up and the movement was no better than a snail's. Just as we were crawling on, by my side of the window, I saw a group of young persons, amongst them a young man, trying to rescue a lady's footwear from the mud created due to ongoing road construction. On rescuing the footwear, it, along with the lady's feet were already soaked in mud and she had resigned to walking home that way, no matter the distance she had no choice or better still, get to a nearby store to get water to wash off the mud, at least. Just then, the driver of my bus gladly called out to her and handed a sachet water to her to wash. Her face beamed with gladness and I didn't know when I smiled very largely. It's no big deal you could say.

I remember during my National Youth Service year in a Northern sate, far away from my state of origin and residence in South West, far away from home, I was in cab going to the town from a village to engage in some business transactions, one of which was to withdraw cash from the ATM. Just as the driver stopped to water his cab, I quickly dashed to a nearby ATM gallery to transact and save myself the stress of going further in to the town and in the process I ended up delaying other passengers on the ride. I got back expecting a backlash due to the various unpleasant stories we've heard of the Northerners but was ironically greeted with smiles and they even asked if I was able to get my transaction done due to my rush. I was glad.

Not long ago the son of the Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, Yusuf, was involved in an accident and all the best hands in the country were summoned to attend to him.

In the three scenarios aforementioned, in none was the ethno-religious affiliations of any of the concerned parties taken into consideration. What came to the fore was the basic thing upon which we all exist - that we're all humans. It was the human in all these scenarios that took precedence over any ethnic sentiment or religious bigotry. The driver who was definitely Yoruba (of the South Western part of Nigeria) never cared if the girl who needed water was from a different ethnicity or religious. The passengers in the cab didn't bother whether I was of the same faith or cultural orientation and no premordial sentiment was put into play when the life of the president's son was in question. What mattered in all cases was that, everyone realised they were all the same - one human.

It's high time we left all these things that eat up our unity and focus on the one thing that binds us, humanity, if we hope for a better Nigeria. A better world and a peaceful cohabitation.

We only need to bring it to the fire because, somewhere, somehow, we still have it within us - humanity.