Wake up call for the masses

The constant religious and communal crises in Nigeria are the creation of the elites who directly or indirectly promote such crises for their selfish means. Nigeria is a multi-religious, multi-cultural and multi-ethnic nation which is the creation of the former British colonial imperialists who amalgamated the northern and sourthern protectorates for cheaper and easier administrative purposes without caring to put in place mechanisms that would bring about tolerance and understanding to the different strange bed follows that will stay together as one people.The Nigerian people either Muslims or Christian have the same enemies. These enemies include our political leaders (either civilians or military) traditional rulers, religious leaders and their cohorts who partake in the wanton corruption and outright stealing of national wealth for their personal and selfish ends. At the centre, the ruling elites and their cohorts sit together without religious and tribal differences to get what they want and after returning to their different places they preach hatred and animosity to confuse and deceive their followers.The frequent crises give the elites especially the political class cover to loot more as attention is always shifted from developmental issues to how to solve the crises, as witnessed in the case of the suspended Governor Dariye of Plateau state who for months could not even pay salaries and has a very poor performance in office.Since the first occurance of religious/tribal conflict during the military dictatorship of General Ibrahim Babangida who refused to use political will to solve the problem, it has led to further occurrences such as in Zango Kataf, Tafawa Balewa, Numan, Kano etc. The present controlled PDP government for the past five years has also failed to solve the religious/tribal conflict after its first occurrence in Shagamu.President Obasanjo who’s administration has witnessed the killing of thousands of Nigerians could not stop it due to lack of political will to deal with the situation.Nigerians of different tribes and religious background should be wise to understand that they have the same enemy or common enemy and should collectively challenge and oppose them instead of shedding innocent blood. Nigerians should be concerned with how they can develop the country and stop fighting we should be asking question like. How can we have good governance and how can we bring about sanity in our democracy? When Northerners were ruling the country, the common Northerner did not have special benefits and privileges and now with President Obasanjo, the life of the ordinary Yoruba-man has not changed. The Nigerian people collectively have a common enemy which is not religious or communal and as such they should shine their eyes well-well.
Shehu Mustapha Chaji G/Gyadi Kano