In the last days…he will teach his ways & we will walk in his paths… judge among the Nations, and shall rebuke many people and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning Hooks nation shall not lift up sword against nations, neither shall they learn war anymore. Isaiah2:3-4 The Bible
O ye who believe if a sinner comes to you with any news, ascertain the fruit, lest ye harm people unwittingly and afterwards become full of repentance for what ye have done…
If two parties among the believers fall into a fight, make ye peace between them… make peace between them with justice and be fair for Allah loves those who are fair (& just)
The believers are one a single brotherhood. So make peace and reconciliation between your two contending brothers and fear Allah, that ye may receive mercy.
O mankind we created you from a single (pair) of a male & female, and made you into Nations & Tribes that ye may know each others (not that ye may despise each other). Verily the most honoured of you in the sight of Allah is he who is the most righteous of you. And Allah has full knowledge and is well acquainted with all things. THE QURAN
The old school slogan is: Youths are leaders of tomorrow, but today we know better: Youths are no more leaders of tomorrow BUT leaders of today. Okay! Or isn’t not true that all Nigeria leaders (former & present) were once youths? And they did not become leader by force or accidents, they were once followers/youths and during their season of followership they were part of blaming Nigeria woes on leadership of time. They are greedy, corrupt, despot and filled with nepotism, so went the critics.
But between then and now much water has crossed the river Nigeria Bridge and today they (Yesterday Critics) have become (Today) leaders too- in the media, Churches, Mosques, Businesses, in the House of Assembly and at all levels of the Nigerian society and governance. And funny enough, they have not been able to solve all the problems the blamed the old leaders for. Instead they created and added to one they complained of.
I think not the reason for this state of things is because our political structure has not be designed to uplift the best leadership personnel but because there are no civil process, programs or spaces in the grass root that intentionally prepares youth for what can be termed better & together Nigeria governance or leadership. In other words we don’t prepare today (youth or followers) with practical service and learning experiences and knowledge that encourage them to be better or go followers today and equip them for tomorrows leadership needs a challenges. Many leaders don’t care about their successors/understanding and cooperation between people directly impacted by their political decision. Today we- the youths of all different faiths, ethnic and social background in Nigeria may all need to criticize and speak against mismanagement of our diverse natural and human resources but this approach will not lead to sustainable progress too.
The main questions we need to asked and answer ourselves; why don’t we become the change we want to see in the world? What if we decide to stop asking for what our nation can do for us and start doing does little things that will make our nation better together?
It is true that some of our present and past leaders have been corrupt, filled with nepotism and despotism but what about our past followership. Are we role models? Are we all good citizens? If we do some self assessment before the mirror you find out that some of our private actions have spared across home, school, campuses, ethnic and religions boundaries to every sector of the economic even security system. Two leadership personnel from different ethnic and religions groups talk or present each other in divergent and divisive way. And we form social platforms like Arewa, Afenifere, Ohaneze etc into barriers instead of bridges to national unity and development. We in Better Together Group think we cannot continue like this and expect to be better Nigeria. We believe that our own generation of youths and leaders has a role to play in the quest to transform Nigeria and We are making Nigeria better by demonstrating youth / leadership that don’t preach of participate in prolonging religious, ethnic divisions and conflicts but build stronger bridges of understanding, relationship and cooperation between Nigeria people of different backgrounds….. Yes! We are becoming the change we want to see in Nigeria. And we believe that together we can end the old cycle of ethnic /religious division & conflict and begin a new cycle of dialogue, understanding & cooperation between people of different faiths and cultures. Join us.
The quality of leadership we will demonstrate tomorrow is directly linked to the nature of followership we exhibit today. How else will we prove that we will lead Nigerian people better & together in the future if we fail to demonstrate good and productive followership today? As leaders of tomorrow we need to Demonstrate better followership today so that we can become better Nigerian leaders tomorrow.
CALL TO SERVICE & LEARNING 02
And we believe that this route will lead us to better and greater tomorrow. These are the reasons why we didn’t agree with democratic citizens & religions people who think that the only way they can please themselves and people of other cultures and faiths in public spaces is to just COMPROMISE everything they believe in. I have met some of them through this ongoing consultation for better together Nigeria project. They believe that the only way to unity is for us not to be talking to each other about religions and our core beliefs, maybe because it is too explosive or abolish religious right in public spaces and turn Nigeria into a full scale secular state. To me that sounds like saying a man and woman should be married but don’t talk to each other. Hey! We love each other and we live together but we do not discuss what is important to me and her together. I think that is not the way of better together unions.
The Quran states O mankind we created you from a single (pair) of a male & female, and made you into Nations & Tribes that ye may know each others (not that ye may despise each other). Verily the most honored of you in the sight of Allah is he who is the most righteous of you. And Allah has full knowledge and is well acquainted with all things. From this perspective (a better together Nigeria) the way to peace, unity and progress will begin when I go to the core of what I believe and you go to the core of what you believe and bring the core to the surface. We better understand each other through informing each other about our values and beliefs and we live it is out for the world to see. (Yes through our inter-faith and inter-ethnic engagements) If both sides (YOU + WE) can decide that we are not going to compromise the core values of our different faiths message (what we believe) and that we are going to work together on projects inspired positively by our values. I think we are going to make Nigeria better together: A country where there is respect for all moral faiths and ethnic religious identity, mutually benefiting the relationship across ethnic and religious boundaries. People of different social, ethnic and religious backgrounds comes together to work for the common good. For instance we teach values like Mercy, Truth, Love, Hospitality, Trust, Integrity, Respect, Compassion, Services, Peace, Justice, Fairness, Food and Water Scarcity, Health etc. and we can do more than mere talks about does core values. We can work together to solve problems of EDUCATION,HOMELESSNESS,CLIMATE CHANGE,FOOD SCARCITY,HEALTHCARE ETC… Inspired together or motivated by our core values. Action that can cause positive changes in inter-ethnic and inter-faiths relationships in our cities and communities. That is why we are calling you to b2g SERVICE & LEARNING: Join us in creating and building up spaces where people, youths and leaders from different faiths, ethnic and social backgrounds comes together.
One of the reason why liberals compromised their core values to please other in public spaces is because of shame and fear of sounding religious and I have experience it. But this shame and fear leads us neither to progress nor opportunities rather it make us underestimate the power moral values and faiths cultures do have – The power to change negative attitude and build positive characters in leadership and followership. When I think of issues like corruption, discrimination, hatred, conflicts, election malpractices, insecurity. Some say they know that solving them will require stronger political leadership / military civil intervention from within and overseas, others say it will also require change in our government structures policies. But I believe that for such solution to be sustainable it will require from us (LEADERS OF TOMORROW) change of heart, attitudes and actions. And only Moral and value based leadership can provide the change of heart & attitudes around those issues.
The problems of corruption, religious discrimination and conflicts cannot be managed or solved by hiding or running away from them. That is what we have done since 1970s till date and it has not worked because religion is a very powerful force in our peoples daily life.
It can only be managed by facing our fear, ignorance differences and understanding them and conquering them. Running away from projects and civil discussions on issues of religious difference will only work if it is the military men that are on political leadership. On the short and long run it is better for us not to act as secularist but to start taking our ethnic and religious diversity serious. How? by opening and sustaining spaces where people from different faiths ethnic and social background comes together to better understand each other, build mutually benefiting relationship with each, develop their potentials and work together. One of the core feature of Islam is celebration and appreciation of differences.
The Quran already states among Allah’s signs is … Diversity in (Mankind’s) language and colors and that (Allah) has created mankind into nations and tribes that we may come to know one another.
LET’S COME TOGETHER, KNOW ONE ANOTHER AND WORK TOGETHER (INSHALLAH) TOWARDS MAKING NIGERIA A BETTER PLACE TO LIVE AND WORK IN. LET’S BEGIN BY CREATING SPACES for B.2.G. PROJECTS.
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