In the wee hours of Tuesday February 3, I was browsing through Google News when I stumbled upon a news item which arrested my attention. The news was fresh – I saw it just a few minutes after it was published by the Vanguard Newspaper. It was titled “IDB supports Jonathan’s transformation agenda with N30bn.” What a whopping sum that was, I thought! However, a sudden interruption prevented me from reading the report immediately, but my interest in it was still very much burning.
When I returned to it after about 9 hours, the piece has gone viral. It has engendered an avalanche of mixed – more of bitter than positive – reactions. To set the records straight, the donated amount was N310bn as contained in the body of the report, contrary to the title which – probably due to a typographic error – indicated N30bn. “The Islamic Development Bank, IDB, has supported President Goodluck Jonathan’s transformational agenda with N310 billion ($2 billion),” the body read.
This is good news for Nigeria, but the reactions of many Nigerians suggest it is not. Many of the comments which appeared below the piece were charged with deafening parochial and schizophrenic rantings. “This is the kind of “gift” Eve gave to Adam,” a reader voiced out. In support, another comment read: “This is certainly a Greek gift.”
These commentators are unduly skeptical of the motive behind the gesture of the IDB. They saw no good intention behind the kind gesture of the bank. Not even did they remember to express appreciation to it for giving such a momentous support to our fatherland. Perhaps, what is most perplexing is that the two comments above attracted the most Facebook “likes”. This proves incontrovertibly that most Nigerians suffer from this myopic culture of thinking within the box, the dogma of always suspecting that generous gestures from the people of a different religious affiliation are motivated by ugly ulterior motives and the stereotype of opposing every beneficial schemes from an ethnic or religious group other than one’s.
This isn’t an isolated case; it only represents the climax of the gradual rise of unhealthy ethnic rivalry and religious intolerance which are as old as Nigeria herself. Dating back to as early as the year 1914 when Nigeria was created by the controversial amalgamation of the southern and northern protectorate, religious intolerance, bigotry, distrust and mutual suspicion have all become permanent features – or eyesore – of the Nigerian political chess game and social terrain. Throughout the period of colonial existence under the stiff jaws of British suzerainty, ethnic affiliation and religion were demonstrably turned into tools of disunity and oppression by self-seeking persons who craved cheap popularity.
The hideous trend did not wane after the 1960 departure of the colonial barracudas which left the affairs of Nigeria in the hands of Nigerians, at least to a reasonable degree. A quick perusal through the First Republic, the Second Republic and the Third Republic in Nigeria reveals a political atmosphere charged with unwarranted distrust and overtly divisive tendencies across religious and ethnic lines. Cruel manipulations, careless utterances and deliberate misunderstanding of other groups by a powerful few have succeeded in presenting religion as a dreaded monster which breeds hostility, disunity, bloodshed and everything vicious.
It is this state of affairs that has given birth to such dreaded cultist groups as the Boko Haram which continues to perpetrate untold carnage in the name of religion. This has meant a momentous boost for the growth of secularity and maturity of religious apathy. It is still progressively alienating divine guidance from the realm of public morality, corporate governance and global civilization – a development which promises no good for anyone. The undue suspicion has been mutual: Muslims are to blame and Christians aren’t innocent!
The Fourth Republic did not record any improvement in this hideous inclination. It only nurtured its growth and made the bad situation more tense. The exploitative tendencies of loans apportioned by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the grossly adverse effects of same on the teeming impoverished populace notwithstanding, no one seems to be visibly grumbling; it has been a case of suffering and smiling. Now, the IDB isn’t requesting any interest, neither is it even demanding a refund of the giant N310bn gift; yet Nigerians wouldn’t say a “thank you” simply because the name of the donor Bank is “Islamic” – the same parochial reason for which the much-beneficial Islamic banking system was opposed for several months.
If we must progress as a country in our march towards nationhood, we need not only start to acknowledge and appreciate positive values and developmental initiatives irrespective of their origin, we also must learn to tolerate each other and de-emphasize our differences. God made no mistake in creating us with diametrically wide diversity of faith, language, skin colour, tribal grouping and thought pattern. He only wanted us to learn a lesson of uniting and cooperating in our diversities. We must know that humanity cannot achieve unanimity; but unity is within our reach.
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