More Than Ever, Nigerians Must Unite In the Face of Adversity

 More Than Ever, Nigerians Must Unite In the Face of Adversity

By Emmanuel Awosika 

Every December 20th is set aside by the United Nations Organization as International Human Solidarity Day.

Its purpose is to celebrate “our unity in diversity” and “encourage debate on the ways to promote solidarity for the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals including poverty eradication,” amongst others.

This year’s celebration comes at the end of a year that has been nothing but tasking for Nigerians.

Was it the novel Coronavirus that infected thousands and forced a nationwide lockdown?

Or the cases of police brutality and the #EndSARS protests that followed? Or the numerous attacks by bandits and terrorists in the North?

Despite these issues, Nigerians must unite in the spirit of solidarity and collaborate to solve national problems.

The power of human solidarity cannot be overestimated. Every nation, empire, or kingdom that reached the heights of greatness only did so because its people were united.

A telling example is the Roman Empire of old, which rose on the back of its national unity, and fell again when its people become disunited.

Asking for solidarity in a multi-ethnic society, like Nigeria, may seem like a fruitless venture, particularly with the country’s well-documented ethnic distrust and religious opposition.

But that is the only way we are going to move forward as a country and solve our problems.

The COVID-19 pandemic isn’t a Northern Nigeria problem nor is it a Southern Nigeria problem; it is a NIGERIAN problem.

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Knowing this, we must all ensure to contribute our quota to ensuring the entire nation doesn’t keel over under the pressure of a second wave of the virus.

Uniting in our desire to follow health precautions and prevent the spread of the virus is the only way we will beat the pandemic.

As private citizens, we must band together and support government efforts in alleviating poverty in the country.

In fact, eradicating poverty is one of the main preoccupations of the International Human Solidarity Day.

Sure, citizens are not the government, and are not expected create poverty alleviation schemes.

However, like the ethos of the IHSD says, we must “promote solidarity for the for the achievement of…poverty eradication.”

We must collaborate on ways to create businesses, create jobs, and generate wealth for members of the populace.

More importantly, we must unite to demand for better governance from our leaders.

If there’s anything learnt from the #EndSARS protests, it’s that “people power is greater than those in power”.

Just as we demanded and achieved the rogue Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) unit, we can demand for better healthcare, good roads, stable electricity supply, and many more from our leaders.

Demanding for better governance doesn’t have to be through protests alone. We can use our votes as a tool to compel better delivery from our public officials.

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We must also get involved in the process of governance and learn the various avenues to pressure rulers to do the right thing.

Even though our economy is in recession and a second COVID-19 lockdown looms and insecurity keeps increasing, we must remain in solidarity — that’s the only way we can solve our problems.

As Samara Michael posits: solidarity is not an act of charity, but mutual aid between forces fighting for the same objective.

In this case, the objective is to make Nigeria weather the storm of its current problems, and reclaim its rightful spot as the “Giant of Africa”.

This can only happen if us citizens remain steadfast in our unity and sense of kinship and solidarity.

Remember, “we can either live together as brothers or perish together like fools.” Happy International Human Solidarity Day!

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