WE ARE DIFFERENT ON PURPOSE.

We Are Different on Purpose.

Imagine if EVERY single Nigerian were muslim. The traffic on friday afternoons would be frustrating beyond redemption. Apply the same thought to Christianity, the Peace and quiet on Sundays would be completely disrupted, in a way that I don't believe would please anyone. What am I saying here? Our differences complement our existence, so that a healthy balance is s effectively struck. Its sad that it has taken us so long to appreciate the simple peculiarities that make Nigeria multi-faceted, and consequently special. We, as Nigerians, tend to associate with people considered the "anomaly", but only at our convenience. That is, a Yoruba man would happily buy Mallam Abu's limited edition suya, but would never consider the idea of friendship with him as plausible, let alone anything more. A hausa woman would willingly implore the service of a tailor from the West, but the idea of an unconventional relationship would seem almost far-fetched. And our Igbo brothers... I sincerely look forward to the day where a business will be established between one of them and an indigen of anywhere else in the country. We have so sunk into the stereotypes which I believe initially started as jokes (Igbo People too like money, etc) but have overtime succeeded in catalysing the growth of the seeds of distrust, seeds that I constantly ask myself who the sower might have been. We seem almost comfortable preserving the division that is implicit in our everyday living, that no one seeks to challenge the idea, for example, that marriage between Nigerians from the East and West will cause more harm than good. I mean my parents have literally mapped out the states from which I am not to introduce a man as my fiancé, and I am light years away from that stage in life.  Over the years all ofthis has amused us but we would sooner or later need to decide the kind of Nigeria we envision twenty to forty years from today- a nation where diversity is a cause for celebration, or a subject of Anarchy. I am a true proponent of the former, and I write in the hopes that we all vote for the same ideology.

The views of an optimist, Amy Gukas.