DAPCHI: The Return And Our Penchant For Emotiveness
There have been hues and cries since the information on the release of the abducted Dapchi girls came to light.
These concerns have left the central issue of the girls' rescue which has been the call and demand by every one to focus on what happened and how it happened, which albeit is worrisome.
It is a heavy distraction now to begin to pilfer on a rather inconsequential issue especially as it regards the rescue. Indeed, it is heavily distracting now that we should be commending the federal government for their efforts to this end.
The pattern of the kidnap, to wit, what the students were doing, what they were wearing, and how they were bundled out of their hostels were not issues as to derail the subject matter of the kidnap that got everyone demanding for their rescue while the incident lasted. I wonder then how the mannerisms of their return should be.
Nigeria is a country divided by the fissures of sentimentalism. The country has so remained this way in virtually everything and every issue. Is it political issue, or religious matter, or economic situations?One thing very obvious is that whipping sentiments of the dichotonomous kind must come to play out.
But the question is. Must we always be sentimental, pushing against any issues in as much as it doesn't win our emotive approbation? Must everything be dismissed because it does not appeal to the way and manner our own section of the national divide is ordinarily expected to follow?
Our ideology, the Nigerian way, is such that is woven across ethnic, religious and tribal lines. We tend to support or negate views or policies following whether the person or people making them are of our emotive appeal. Is he my tribe? Does the policy favour my people? Is the matter in question of a general appeal to my people?
By and large, our sense of reasoning tend often to be on 'our' and 'their' bases.
What a country. But is that how we are meant to survive? Is that how we ought to live and reason in growing this country we call our own. Sadly, we cannot claim to have a united country when our emotions that should drive our sense of commitments are tragically divided.
The above brings me back to the issue in question, that of the Dapchi schoolgirls kidnap, their eventual return and the flying rhetoric.
It was with this same picture that the sentimentalistic purveyors had of the Chibok incident, of how it was dismissed as a story fitting for the movies. It was cheaply sold as a no commodity even as the world shrugged and raised emotions. It was because of this horrible dismissal, of a noncommitment that made it to sorely linger.
The Dapchi situation has also been so viewed. But one thing is certain which the sentimental purveyors cannot dismiss but would in their custom only try as much to discredit and make light of, is the fact that there was aptness, there was urgency in the efforts of the current administration to rescue the girls.
This was a standout spirit that was lacking in the previous incident and the previous administration that made the issue to linger into months and subsequently years. This spirit was what made the difference and it ought to be appreciated.
As citizens, it is our consciousness to be alive to situations that affects our humanity that would strengthen our responsibility to be alert and not to be taken for a ride. Our penchant to emotiveness, tribalism, sectionalism and other parochial inclinations only further exposes as vulnerable fellows that should be taken for rides.
The Dapchi girls we heard were kidnapped. Thank goodness we are hearing they are back to assurance and safety. We could only hear and believe. However, may posterity judge whoever that might be feeding on the vulnerabilities we ourselves have by our dispositions, whether consciously or unconsciously, heightened.
Yes, may posterity judge the purveyors of falsehoods and of whipping sentiments that build from mundane values.
These concerns have left the central issue of the girls' rescue which has been the call and demand by every one to focus on what happened and how it happened, which albeit is worrisome.
It is a heavy distraction now to begin to pilfer on a rather inconsequential issue especially as it regards the rescue. Indeed, it is heavily distracting now that we should be commending the federal government for their efforts to this end.
The pattern of the kidnap, to wit, what the students were doing, what they were wearing, and how they were bundled out of their hostels were not issues as to derail the subject matter of the kidnap that got everyone demanding for their rescue while the incident lasted. I wonder then how the mannerisms of their return should be.
Nigeria is a country divided by the fissures of sentimentalism. The country has so remained this way in virtually everything and every issue. Is it political issue, or religious matter, or economic situations?One thing very obvious is that whipping sentiments of the dichotonomous kind must come to play out.
But the question is. Must we always be sentimental, pushing against any issues in as much as it doesn't win our emotive approbation? Must everything be dismissed because it does not appeal to the way and manner our own section of the national divide is ordinarily expected to follow?
Our ideology, the Nigerian way, is such that is woven across ethnic, religious and tribal lines. We tend to support or negate views or policies following whether the person or people making them are of our emotive appeal. Is he my tribe? Does the policy favour my people? Is the matter in question of a general appeal to my people?
By and large, our sense of reasoning tend often to be on 'our' and 'their' bases.
What a country. But is that how we are meant to survive? Is that how we ought to live and reason in growing this country we call our own. Sadly, we cannot claim to have a united country when our emotions that should drive our sense of commitments are tragically divided.
The above brings me back to the issue in question, that of the Dapchi schoolgirls kidnap, their eventual return and the flying rhetoric.
It was with this same picture that the sentimentalistic purveyors had of the Chibok incident, of how it was dismissed as a story fitting for the movies. It was cheaply sold as a no commodity even as the world shrugged and raised emotions. It was because of this horrible dismissal, of a noncommitment that made it to sorely linger.
The Dapchi situation has also been so viewed. But one thing is certain which the sentimental purveyors cannot dismiss but would in their custom only try as much to discredit and make light of, is the fact that there was aptness, there was urgency in the efforts of the current administration to rescue the girls.
This was a standout spirit that was lacking in the previous incident and the previous administration that made the issue to linger into months and subsequently years. This spirit was what made the difference and it ought to be appreciated.
As citizens, it is our consciousness to be alive to situations that affects our humanity that would strengthen our responsibility to be alert and not to be taken for a ride. Our penchant to emotiveness, tribalism, sectionalism and other parochial inclinations only further exposes as vulnerable fellows that should be taken for rides.
The Dapchi girls we heard were kidnapped. Thank goodness we are hearing they are back to assurance and safety. We could only hear and believe. However, may posterity judge whoever that might be feeding on the vulnerabilities we ourselves have by our dispositions, whether consciously or unconsciously, heightened.
Yes, may posterity judge the purveyors of falsehoods and of whipping sentiments that build from mundane values.
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