LOYALTY TO NIGERIA OUR FATHERLAND

By Caleb Zadok Adiga

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I pledge to Nigeria my country, to be faithful, loyal and honest, to serve Nigeria with all my heart; to uphold her unity, honour and glory, so help me God.

This is our national pledge which is our collective responsibility to keep together with our leaders. Looking at the things happening today in our country, the question is, are we upholding the unity of our country as it is the vision of our founding fathers? Today, where the Yoruba man finds an opportunity to rule, he picks his own and places them at the helm of affairs; it is the same thing with the Igbo, the Hausa-Fulani and the rest of the tribes. Most amazing is the fact that some people believe if it is not one of their kind, they believe nothing is happening.

As a citizen of this nation, I believe we need to revisit the issue of our national pledge which is very paramount to our national unity. Before we agree to come together as a nation, our founding fathers had a vision of one big family called Nigeria. It is against this backdrop that when the Igbo community decided to secede, the whole nation stood against it and ensued they were brought back so that we will build the nation our fore fathers fought for. It is pertinent therefore to continue with the vision of these founding fathers of ONE NIGERIA bearing in mind the complexity of our nation and taking cognizance of the ethnic, or religious differences and even our political affiliations. There was a time in Germany when a wall separated the people. The country was divided into two. To go to the other side, you must have relevant papers to gain access, but today, the wall is no longer existing. It did not just vanish, but the people got fed up and pulled the wall down and the rest is history. I believe with time, we will come together one day and pull down the wall of religion, pull down the wall of ethnicity, regionism, political differences and all other vices that tend to bring division and disagreement amongst the people of this nation. With this, our founding fathers will not be disappointed at us.

My candid advice is that, we should go back to our National Pledge; teach it in the primary and secondary schools. Inculcate the doctrine in all the parts of the nation. By this, we will  overcome that wall that separates us and this nation will once again be a great if not the greatest nation in the world.