must read !!!

I have always believed religious/tribal intolerance is the number one( even before corruption) reason why Nigeria is yet to attain true greatness.

Growing up as a Yoruba individual and a Muslim, I didnt quite blend in, didn't fit into the stereotypical image the average Nigeria would have of both a Yoruba person and a Muslim, also I had friends, relatives, mostly friends though who opined that I had to do this, speak that to show I am more of this tribe or of this religion. I never quite understood, why? where we at war with the other tribes/religions. I got backlashed for not speaking Yoruba in the public or not wearing cap to mosque, they felt I was over-westernized, here comes the caveat:

I will start from tribe.....
Nigeria is a multi cultural nation, like it or not, this whole idea of "he is my brother" because he shares the same tribal roots as yours that is being propagated by our traditional rulers, chiefs and co. is helping no one, it is so bad that some people have refused to learn english. how will you communicate with other people from different regions when you find yourself in such position...To be candid, Nigeria has no official language, we barely understand ourselves, thereby violating philosophical school of thoughts principle for co-habitating (the linguistic and conceptual approach).
we place priority in partisanship even in economic activities, "rather put someone from my village with SSCE cert. than someone else from somewhere I dont know with an MsC"...how is such a venture going to operate at optimum capacity when underskiled personnels have been recruited...how can you give what you don't have?

Then religion:
I recently travelled to ORE by bus and one lady decided to "pray for US", if you frequent long road trips, this wouldn't sound surprising till u lay back and think of it. she prayed and screamed in our ears for 1 hour, even got mad when we didn't say amen later on. why please would you impose your spiritual tenacity on innocent people? not everybody in the vehicle shares your faith, not everybody buys the idea of ostentatious casting and binding, and to be candid, many a bus that has somersaulted had some iconic prayer warriors in them. A similar thing happened when I was in college, university of Ilorin to be precise. A man was reading the Quran out loud in a public classroom, and it was an exam week. people walked up to him and he was unperturbed, refused to consider the vast number of students trying to the normal cram and pour process which needed a tranquil environment, every well informed Muslim knows, reading the Quran aloud doesn't get you 500 maidens or makes u holier...then u wonder where this lot get their funny ideas from.

I could blame clerics for this, for making their followers imbibe a lifestyle that oozes a "them versus US" mentality, for confusing faith with illusion or misconstruing pride for arrogance,,,,yet at the end of the day, we are humans, free willed creatures, we hold the aces to impact or destroy...we should not obliterate reason or logic arbitrarily....by this century, you would think we would have simmered throught all the unpleasantries and evolved into more civilized and tolerable individuals


Written and edited by
Oyewole abidemi

@mynd44 @lalasticlala

@OAM4J please let others benefit from this write up