PROVERBS OF PEACE AND YIGBA PROGRAM … The Younger Generations

PROVERBS OF PEACE AND YIGBA PROGRAM  … The Younger Generations

The bloodshed is rising, killings are multiplying and the whole country is not at ease. Hatred rules the hour, sharpening the lines of division by the minute.  Rumors and fake news threaten to displace truth.  Confusion fuels renegade emotions and the fear in the atmosphere is palpable.  Foreign and local interests unite in only one purpose – a quest to take Nigeria, by all means.  Their real identity is artfully concealed as they borrow other masks such as Boko Haram, Fulani Herdsmen, Kidnappers.  All so well-armed, organized, and coordinated to a level their personnel cannot of themselves justify.  Government appears helpless and disinterested and, in any event, it longer enjoys the trust of the masses.   Meanwhile, the drums of war are getting louder by the day.

More than ever before, we all need to pay attention to the words and wise counsel of our elders.  Follow them into the way of peace, eschewing hatred, violence, suspicion and bloodshed and joining hands to construct the bridge of peace; a bridge best built through talking to one another; the only bridge that can connect us to our future ordained destiny of development and progress; the long-overdue future for Nigeria and, by extension, the rest of Africa.  This bridge peace guarantees our survival and our deserved deliverance from suffering into the liberty of hope.  Hope that reinstates our basic African values and regains a high regard for our human worth.  Hope, that remands us from the prison of history of slavery – physical, mental, and spiritual, to foreign nations and interests.  Hope that restores to us our glorious and rich heritage.  A heritage that boasts of the proverbs of peace and conflict resolution tools, that ensures that war is not ever declared except when, rarely, it is absolutely necessary.  A heritage shared with the rest of mankind, demonstrated by the trite fact, even in the modern age, we have never heard of any nation with a ministry for offence.

Therefore, when the elders say we must look deep, act fast and think out-of-the-box it is not because they want us to avoid any issues.Most certainly not! Rather it is because there are dark clouds, which must be dispersed and thereare confusions, which must be dispelled so that everyone will know exactly what we are dealing with.  Without doing this, we stand the risk of committing irreparable blunders.

The elders have advised us to construct a bridge of peace for the Nigerian citizenthat will tower above political divides, vested religious interests and selfish ambitions. To make this possible, there must be a reprogramming.  This is distinctly different from restructuring as two practical projects, which we can commission right away, will demonstrate.These two projects highlight the difference between restructuring and reprogramming.  While restructuring deals with the arrangements and political and other frameworks, like the engineering of the external shell of an edifice, reprogramming goes to the very core; the foundation, the values enshrined in the hearts of men.  It seeks to evoke a paradigm shifts that will facilitate unity and cohesion.

The first project is a national game changer that we can apply right away if we just humble ourselves in the South as we could learn from one another. The Hausa-Fulani concept is a product of programming that has affected the destiny of Nigeria in more ways than anyone can imagine. It is a concept that has multiplied the strength of two distinct cultural nations without destroying the essence of each cultural nation. It has not made any Hausa man less Hausa and it never made any Fulani less Fulani! Neither has it ever turned a Hausa man.Why then can’t we install a similar concept program to multiply the strength of all the cultural nations in southern Nigeria without diminishing the essence of each one?

YIGBA is the answer! This is the unified cultural platform that every southerner can claim as his own whether Ibibio, Yoruba, Igbo, Edo, Ijaw, or any other tribe or tongue.

Like the Hausa-Fulani concept, it would allow us to share many things that are of common interests to us and so, without firing one gunshot, we would have made a giant stride of progress in national integration.  We would be able, going further, to integrate the YIGBA initially with the existing Hausa-Fulani and, thereafter, with the platforms of the other cultural nations in northern Nigeria.Through programming the foundation flaws that enculturate the divisions in the national sphere would gradually be erased. As a follow up on this launching of the YIGBA brand our ambassadors will organize a formal ceremony where the inter-cultural nation protocols that guide YIGBA will bemade public.

The second programming project is the “Proverbs of Peace” which simply means that we have ranted, shouted, and abused each other for long enough. To separate the good from the evil, lies from truths, patriots from demagogues and the wise from the foolish we declare that all discourse about the Nigerian future must be done on the platform of speech exclusively founded in peace, truth, brotherhood, love, and a respect for the sovereignty of the nation, and a determination to preserve our flag, a stainless banner.  A platform that recognizes only one common debt of service, honour and patriotism.

Practically every cultural nation in Nigeria has its own ancient body of proverbs. If our forefathers were wise enough to develop a language of diplomacy for national affairs, why should we abandon this Divine that comes to us all from above.The proverbs of peace were also the language of court in the palaces of ancient African kings.  No matter how thorny the issues were that arose, they could be discussed profitably.  The proverbs of peace help to reduce all issues into simple points that can be debated and considered without excessive emotional baggage. This simplicity lowers the temperature of conflicts and smoothens the way of peace. This way the true enemies of our nation will be exposed, and appropriate measures will be taken.

Once we all agree to communicate with the “Peace of Proverbs” all the smoke and dark clouds will be cleared, and the real enemies of our progress will be exposed.Experts and consultants have told us that the war form afflicting Nigeria is in many ways a war of narratives. No wonder there is so much smoke everywhere.

It is time to clear the air and find out what we really are up against. The advantages of adopting this platform as the standard for all discussions are many. This is the ancient African version of Non-Violent Communication.