A nation consists of many parts. To make progress it is required that the parts be together so that the nation can move forward as one, without some parts pulling others back. This means that without national unity, there can be no true national progress.
When we were young, we were told that there can be unity in diversity if we can emphasize only those things that bind us together and neglect our differences. That though our tribes and tongues may differ, we can unite into one brotherhood to serve our country. Now that we are old we have seen so much over the years to make us take to a new tune.
We now know from experience that there can no unity in diversity. The only thing you can get from diversity is disunity. The multiple tribes and tongues in our country make us diverse as well as disunited. There is no time in peace time when the tribes can come together without arguments and squabbles. There is always a war, open or subtle, when different tribes meet. The brotherhood we were told we would achieve with time is nowhere to be found. What we see are constant friction and naked hatred. Where are the unity and brotherhood our teachers taught us would be our lot in independent African?
Our teachers believed that Africans would unite more after independence than they even did during the struggle for independence. This unity, they taught us, would make Africa blossom and fly high into the land of continuous progress. What they did not know was that the reactions between different tribes cannot admit unity, and therefore cannot lead to progress. They did not know that as current-carrying conductors, human beings cannot unite into one when they belong to different tribes. We may wish otherwise but wishes are wishes while reality is reality. The reality is that nature says NO to unity between multiple tribes sharing a common nation. It is impossible, vastly impossible, for different tribes in a nation to maintain their tribes and be united. Ampere’s experiments and our day-to-day experiences in our Africa tell us so. Since national progress has national unity as a minimum requirement, a nation of multiple tribes cannot make real progress in real terms. It can keep trying to find progress and it will keep failing, until the leaders realize the nature of things and verify that nature cannot go back on its stand. Nature says that a multi-tribal nation cannot unite truly and that’s it. There is nothing anyone can do to change it.
If we want progress, we must have national unity in hand. But how do we get our multiple tribes to unite into one single whole? Can they remain distinct and separate as they are and form one single whole? Can we have hydrogen chloride acid HCl and sodium hydroxide NaOH remain separate and distinct and form one substance, common salt NaCl? Can we eat our cake and still have it on our plate? Can we remain separate and distinct and still achieve unity? Even common sense says NO. We either have our tribes and tongues and no national unity or national unity and no tribes and tongues. We must make a choice. We cannot have both because having one precludes the other. If we choose to keep our tribes and tongues, we choose to forfeit progress and if we choose national unity, we will get progress and forfeit our tribes ad tongues. The choice is ours.
We are of the opinion that it is better to choose unity and progress and forfeit our dear tribes and tongues. We have many reasons for our choice. Please see some of these reasons in our book Barrier to Riches at www.jschools.co.
Source: Isaac John
