Lagos — EVENTS in the nation have again thrown at us, some variables we all would have wished were better forgotten. Some of these events for me include the religious crises, as seen in the Boko-Haram kind of uprising, the Jos settler/indigenes troubles, the Niger Delta freedom fighers and the Yar'Adua disputes or disagreements.

The Boko-Haram and other allied disturbances have shown that those matters on religious divide, which we have tried to bury and pretend they can't resurrect, are fully with us.

It is not that they just exist in our midst, the frightening fact, should be that, they are of such nature, that of themselves, they constitute a monster. We have tried to mouth it and to pretend that ours is a secular nation, in which all are free to practice their religious faith, in any part of this nation. But what we see in actual practice, is that religion has gone far, from being a thing of the heart, which it is supposed to be, to a strong tool for confirming hate, and for pursuing unholy competition. This is the reason why, no serious excuse is needed, for religious riots to start, and the same accounts for why places of worship are the first casualties of such senseless uproars. The most regrettable discovery on this score is that this bug of religious fanaticism has not spared the well educated, many of whom force themselves on us, as leaders.

When I see our leaders in government and particularly in the National Assembly talk and pontificate on why our people should avoid religious crisis, I laugh. I laugh because of what I do know about them. I laugh very loud, because I do know that the situation on our hands is that of saying the right things, but deliberately taking the wrong actions. Recently, I met a gentle Fulani man from the north and the story he told was pathetic. He told me that he began his migration to God knows where, because parents will not hear it that he had a personal encounter which made him change faith. I asked him if somebody preached to him. He said no, that a strange being encountered him in the forest, while tending cows, placed an object in his hands after identifying himself and told him what faith to propagate from that point. He said he returned home full of strange powers and became a changed person, with obviously new convictions.

He said on close dealings with his immediate family they thought he had gone mental. They flogged him and when this was not enough, they forcefully took him to a psychiatric hospital for examination. Of-course, the hospital found nothing. With this outcome, it became clear to the family that this young Nigerian was operating under a new spirit, to stop further advancement, he was told to immediately renounce the new vision or be ostracized. He chose his new faith and was excommunicated. In a harsh world, such as we currently have in this country, he was striped of all forms of assistance and left to face the world in her raw form. He ran away from the village, with no money, but managed to find himself in a popular northern city, where his cousin, a serving senator has a house, expectedly; he was received but placed on continuous query. As weeks passed into months, he was asked to make what I call the great choice. Return to your old faith or be killed. Again, he refused and was authorized to be flogged countless times, tortured and humiliated and finally sent packing.

He then roamed the streets, sleeping at night, in very unsafe locations. But his fortune was to change again when a Fulani rich man, who saw him, and in line with their tradition, of being each other's keeper, called and inquired why he was where he was and doing the kind of Jobs alien to people of that race. He explained his predicament and as God would have it, the rich man, himself was a one time convert to a new religion and so could understand the pains. So, he took him in. From the story, not long after, pressures began to mount on the rich Fulani man, from different quarters, and then from Saudi Arabia , with promises to fully change his material fortunes. He succumbed and returned to his old faith, wanted the wandering brother to follow, but he said no, and that meant eviction. All these are happening in our nation, not ten years ago, not even two years ago and yet, we are busy wondering what the hindrances to our development are. The senator in question is in the corridors of power. Every time we are at the cross roads, he is one of those who sermonize on the path we should take. But here, he is, in his private actions, showing that he is everything antithetical to the good positions he assumes in public discourse. This behaviour explains partly why this nation still has religious troubles on her hands. Some Nigerians have found religion it a good tool for self-aggrandizement. It does not matter to them how many lives get lost in the process.

The same applies to the Niger-Delta crisis. On the surface, the easy inference could be that hungry youths, chose of their own accord to vent their anger on the larger society. This could well be part of it, but for me, the greater thing I see from it, is a clear case of establishing the standing of each race or tribe in relation to the power equation in this nation. The area of Niger-Delta produces the bulk of the wealth of this nation, but the wealth's transformational effect, is felt not in Niger-Delta area, but in places that make little or no contribution to the resources of this nation.

Now the call or agitation for Justice and fairness is met with brutal repression, and a divide and rule tactics, which have led to the untimely elimination of some of Niger-Delta's best brains. The truth is that you don't treat a group that has power, that is respected and feared, this way. The truth is that maltreatment and disdain are the gifts reserved for people and societies whose place on the ladder of respect and power are confirmed to be very loud, made so by man's deliberate designs to draw or reap unfair advantages.

The struggle to make Jonathan an Acting President then brings the picture very clear. For an exercise that should be natural, it becomes an issue capable of bringing down this nation, because a section of this country says, no, we don't understand what you people want to do. Their attitude is, it may be constitutional, but so long as that section comes in conflict with our interest, we have the eternal right, as the natural rulers of this nation, to rise and stall the process, until we can extract compromises. Juxtapose this scenario with the Niger-Delta development; see the reactions in both instances. In the first, a section of this country says Jonathan can't be a full President. Then everybody looks up in a state of total bewilderment and surrender. In the case of the Niger-Delta agitation, the response was bombing them. When you add this to the fact that at a time in our history deliberate undemocratic attempt was made to give the West the Presidency, you can then make your deductions on whether all these do not confirm that there exist in this country a born to rule section and the servant races or tribes.

I have said this a number of times in my write ups and I want to restate it, that the trouble with Nigeria has nothing to do with size, neither has it anything to do with tribe and religion. No, and this is capital no! Instead, it has everything to do with a preponderance of devil inspired men and of-course women, who have elevated the doctrine of self into state policy. The ideology of self interest does not instill confidence, so to make up, the operators must draw strength through "gang" collaboration, it is this that makes them promote nepotism, favouritism and when the stage is bigger, they use religion and ethnicity. It is the contradictions arising from these that are responsible for the heat we see and experience. If we must turn things around, our activities particularly at the leadership levels must have space for vision, the sustaining pillars of vision must be anchored on fairness, justice and equity. Our main ideology should be to create that state in which all citizens will look at themselves and exclaim at all times: "I am proud to be a Nigerian".