BROTHERS AT WAR: THE NATIONAL ANTHEM FACTOR

A PUBLICATION TO COMMEMORATE THE BIRTHDAY OF
TUNDE OLUMIDE OLUWASIMIRIN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, FEMIMONIOLU FOUNDATION

14TH MARCH, 2022

When the colonial masters were handing our nation to us, they saw factors of strength in us and they included it in our anthem, unfortunately, our own leaders felt threatened by it because of their own selfish interest and here we are today, brothers are at war with themselves, killing is no longer a breaking news.
 
WHAT REALLY HAPPENED:
Nigeria our native land with diverse tribes; though tongues and tribes may defer but in brotherhood we stand, this was always on the lips of everybody and the spirit of brotherhood kept growing but for reasons, the anthem was changed and the people lost the sense of brotherhood; brothers now turned to enemies, instead of brothers delivering brothers, brothers now kill brothers, very sad.

They changed our pride of serving our motherland to rising to the call to serve our fatherland creating an impression that the bond of umbilical cord no longer exist between the tribes and tongues except that of the father which is weaker.
For their conscience not to be daily troubled at the hearing of the anthem, the part that reminds us about our flag as a symbol of justice was removed because they knew justice will no longer reign for their mission to be accomplished, how then do we expect peace to reign? Peace is not the absence of war but the presence of justice, no wonder peace is now a stranger in our land to the extent that wherever it is relatively seen, it is celebrated. Justice was murdered and brothers resulted to war.

Knowing that they will not transfer justice and peace to our generation, they removed the part that promised to handover to the children, a banner without stain because the white in the flag that was handed over to us is turning reddish on daily basis with the blood stain of the children who were supposed to inherit brotherhood, justice, love and peace.

And most unfortunately, the part that daily raise our voice of prayer to the God of creation to grant us a request of building a nation where no man is oppressed so we can all live with peace and plenty was removed and here we are today, where Nigerians are oppressed in their own fatherland, where everyone is subjected to suffer and smile, where freedom of speech in available but freedom after speech is not guaranteed, where the son of the soil now live in prison in their own fatherland.

Brothers are recruited into the military and paramilitary not to fight our common enemies but to fight ourselves, here we are today, with what our sense of brotherhood was changed to.

Arise o brothers to yield to the call of Nigeria, to serve yourselves as children of a father and not of a mother, to forget our sense of motherland and serve our fatherland, with love to the land and serve with strength, for their labour for personal gain not to be in vain deceiving us that we are building a nation bound in freedom, peace and unity. One would ask, where is the peace coming from when the sense of brotherhood has been removed and justice has been murdered in cold blood? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? IMPOSSIBLE. How will peace reign in the absence of justice, the genesis of our problem.

Things have gone so bad that people have been calling for the dissolution of what they call marriage of inconvenience in the name of secession, so many agitations everywhere but will that truly solve our problem?

Our coexistence as a state is not the problem, but our mindset that has been formatted that we are no brothers is the problem: The Kiriji war was an intra tribal war of the Yorubas, the Ekiti/Ijesa war and a host of others were among the Yorubas, the operation wet-e and a host of many clashes were within the people of the same clan.

That was a long time some will say but the Northern crisis that has grown into a full blown insurgency with different names depending on location: Boko Haram, Bandits, Herdsmen and all names given to them are pure cases of brothers killing brothers, kidnapping, killing, arson and other crimes are no longer breaking news in the Northern part of the country: 250 school children kidnapped in Borno, 75 killed in Niger village, 156 killed in Kaduna, Zamfara IDP camp raided, over 400 people missing, all these are normal news in the North among the Hausa/Fulanis, its still a fight of brothers. The worst of all is the sudden development of the South East crisis and the peculiar name it came with, UNKNOWN GUNMEN where brothers are killing brothers in broad day light, properties of their own people are burnt to ashes on daily basis, investment of a generation is razed within hours, lifetime savings of people for children and grandchildren are pushed into the oceans, government infrastructure built with the tax they pay and been destroyed, their best brains are being killed and they are all Igbos, all for no just cause but we are paying dearly for the sense of brotherhood that was taken from us and the social justice that no longer exist in our land.

If the foundation is destroy, what shall the righteous do?
Our solution might not be a far-fetched, let us all return to our prayer for this land, not just in our churches or mosques or shrines but in the second stanza of the new anthem. Even those who did the deed knew it will get to a time that the impact would be so bad that we will need to return to the God of creation.

Oh God of creation, direct our noble cause, guide our leaders to do that which is right at all times, to be fair in their sense of judgment, to give social justice a place and peace a chance, to leave their selfish plan and not share what belongs to 200 million people among 20 of them, to give our children sound education, give the youths job and not recruit them as thugs, use the tax paid by our citizens for the citizens and not for their families, in all they do, they should do the right thing.

If we have traveled forward in the right direction since we have been moving backward in the last 30 years, our nation would have been a hub of possibilities; the days free education and free feeding with whole chicken in UI and other universities, the days where we built the tallest building without oil and named it after our own product, cocoa, the days when 1 Pound was 2 Naira,  the day Nigerians called a meeting to help solve the problem of Great Britain, the days when we had the first TV station even before France and other sweet memories, we would have been a safe haven of business and investment for the whole world because our population would have given us the strength of being a great market but alas, reverse is the case, as many as we are that we are close to 200 million, we are all import dependent, even for our tooth pick and sadly foods like Pap, Gaari, locust beans and many more, how do we explain this. Our leaders turned our vehicle to travel in the opposite direction and we became the dumpsite of all jargons across the globe, we became the highest debtor across the continent and our money lost value like a 20 year old newspaper. SAD! Oh God of creation, please help guide our leaders right, heal our land that Nigeria may rise again.
Guide our youths the truth to know that the future is in their hand and they can take it, that the beautiful ones are born already and they are among them, to know that they can be leaders tomorrow and not die prematurely for any leader, to know that we are all brothers, to know that even though tongues and tribe may defer, but there is a brotherhood bond that binds us, that brothers should deliver brothers and not that brothers should kill brothers.

That we can live in just ad truth and that together we can build a nation where peace will be a local indigene of all our community, where peace will be the identity of our lands, where brothers will value the life of fellow brothers than any other thing, where we can all sleep with or two eyes closed, where we can proudly say, this is my Country and above all where justice, honesty, love and integrity will be boldly seen on the forehead of everyone even when it is not written in letters.

Tribes and tongues may differ, but in brotherhood we stand.

Thank you
God bless Nigeria
God bless Nigerians.
 
 
Tunde Merry Oluwasimirin
tundemerry@gmail.com
2348035284218
@merryolu