EVERJUICY

Military checkpoints, calls for ethnic violence, high inflammatory remarks from both sides. The south east of Nigeria has become ground for what people fear might sipral out of control.

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People searching and looking for people from other ethnicity to inflict harm or even possibly kill them. We have to look at this issue from a third perspective, because both the ipob movement and the Federal government have a legitimate argument and both have also made terrible mistakes when it comes to addressing the issue.

The first issue is the lack of ability for dialogue from the government. In Nigeria, we mostly have shouting matches, threats as a method to solve political problems. A nation plagued by poverty, poor education,needs not another violent way to solve its issues, for if you introduce a violent solution in a country where most youths are unemployed and people lack basic education, it will spiral out of control for you bring out the repressed anger and tribalism that we humans are accustomed to by a mere act of our biology.

We are all biological beings and spirit of tribalism rides in our system and using ethnic rhetoric to bring this out Is dangerous. From an intellectual perspective the very notion of ethnicity is fickle and very fragile, as the German philosopher Heidegger famously introduced the term 'Throwness' All of us are thrown into the world ,without having chosen our race, country, ethnicity, but are left irrationally defending it through ignorance and bigotry. You could've being born hausa, Fulani or yorurba.

What is so special that you where born as an igbo? Nothing really, just chance. Stopping buses or harassing innocent protesters is not the way to go. The Hausa man you're try to Lynch or the igbo man, is not part of the problem. An average folk has no say in the affairs of government, channeling your frustration towards him/her is an act of cowardice and is a stupid thing to do. Good ideas should be protected and celebrated not ethnicity.

Nigeria has suffered mostly because of lack of collective effort, we love personalized glory. Working together to create a better nation is not our motto, ranging from the government to the average man.

Personalization over collective good Nigeria have already gone through a civil war which was devastating and thoughts of another one should scare anyone with good memory or good with history The act of compromise and dialogue should be initiated and create a type of 7point agenda to help deal with the biafra issue, while maintaining the legitimacy and integrity of the nation.

In Nigeria, differences is much but differences are good only in a community where there are people with the intellectual capabilities to understand and tolerant differences and see it as an opportunity to grow not those who treat differences with ignorance, hatred and bigotry.

Hating or disliking someone for their ethnicity is a fickle thing, we are victims of accident of birth. Good ideas, cooperation, understanding should be promoted not ethnic violence or prefence Adoption of negotiations and dialogue is very much needed in Nigeria today. Let's rid ourselves of the mindset based on self centeredness.

In a country where compromise is seen as being weak and a defeat, I fear for our future as a nation. Compromise should be on the table and the federal government and ipob should sit and discuss issues and forget brute force and I believe we would find a compromise and a way to move toward.

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By Ebere Godson