ONE WAY, NOT A WAY
By ONOJA J. OKPANACHI
The social media space has been agog these past two days on the planned Ata Igala and the Igala Area Traditional Council proposed visit to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to be led by the Honourable Minister of Steel Development, Prince Shuaibu Abubakar Audu as reported. The development ordinarily should gladdens the heart of the people but for the narrative set forth by the team who first broke the planned visit to the public – that the essence of the visit is to coerce the revered Ata Igala to make case for the ongoing gubernatorial case in the tribunal et al. And, this narrative angered so many of the people and alas, everyone angrily bursted the best way they thought they should protest and most were done on various social media platforms to the extent that there was a lost of control of the essence of the supposed protest by the angry people who do not want a “repeat” of what happened in the recent past – their fears, very genuine but the one way approach to things is rather undoing our protests and exposing us everyday in the negative light to others in our dear nation, Nigeria.
To start with, as a people in a multi-ethnic and multi-dimentional country like Nigeria, it will be absolutely wrong for any group to go one way in political matters – there’s nothing wrong to belong to multiple political parties/interests but for a common goal for the good of the people after all. What is actually wrong is not having a common goal as a people and that is where leadership comes in for directions at every given time in the activities of the people. For us, we are suffering from lack of leadership and the core reason why we seem to be heading one way all the time and we do so without planned strategies – everyone is a champ and we execute ideas in zigzag manners thereby reducing the potency and impact of very brilliant ideas that would turned great success in other climes. We must clear from our mindsets of the wrong idea that we must all be packed in one box politically – the most important thing is to have a common goal that will guide whosoever emerged successful through his/her political platform to know what to do for the benefit of the people.
Now, the bottom line is that our outbursts on social media platforms have shown clearly to the world that the Igala nation lacks leadership, clear chain of communication and so, everyone shines to be the first to break the news and oftentimes, the news being broken are the negative ones. And, the worst of it all is how they go viral which brings us to the next layer of the growing challenge – we do not verify info anymore, as soon as it’s out, it goes on all platforms and as it spreads, it becomes “the truth” and many fall victims of this even the learned and highly placed ones whom expectedly should know better but because there’s an existing mindsets already, they take it whole and then help in affirming the news as “the truth” to the point that when the real truth will surface, it will be taken as the fake – this one way approach destroys a nation instead of building because a day will come that one of such info will set us up against each other and against our friends and the consequences will be grave and irreparable because when the truth will emerge after the damage(s), we will be ashamed of our actions.
Another terrible danger in this “one way” approach to issues is that outsiders can easily set us up knowing that we have become gullible – they will create serious gulf between us and our leaders/elders to their own (selfish) advantage and thus, keep us separated for as long as they want or until their objectives are well achieved.
This growing concern calls for serious dialoguing – there should be channel of communication on issues that concern the entire nation – this is not advising against freedom of information but encouraging a filtering pattern that will assure the people of what is right and wrong. We need to develop serious consciousness about our current state as a people and be sure we are not destroying ignorantly when we think we are building. We are in a delicate times and so, must be very calculative in all fronts and at all times. Note, as free as social media is, if not well used, it easily destroys same way.
Now, back to the crux of the matter and in summary, too, with the list of the people being visited by the Honourable Minister of Steel Development, Prince Shuaibu Abubakar Audu, I doubt if anything would go wrong with the visit to Aso Rock. These men can look into one’s face and tell how they feel even though I know them to very diplomatic, they are fearless, too. What would you give the likes of Senator (Dr.) Alex Usman Kadiri, Chief Ogwu James Onoja, SAN, Vice Admiral Jibrin Usman and the rest listed in the Press Release by the Honourable Minister’s Media Aide that will make them go against the Igala nation at this stage of their lives? Rather, I see it as a chance for the Minister to even hear the truth from these great personalities as they will not mince words when speaking with him, I know them to that extent. The Minister’s visits to these greats may give him a new perspective if his heart is open to learn more. So, let the nation rise for good and be very slow to judge. The Ata Igala in palace has lots to learn from the past and should nothing is learnt, the land has its own ways.
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