No culture, religion or political party is as old as our humanity. We first become humans before retreating into subgroups of our artificial creations.
When Tsunami struck Indonesian island in 2006, from the Nazareth of Abakaliki, my own parents contributed their widow’s mite to relief materials meant for the victims. It was neither tribe nor religion but humanity that moved them to action. When America or elsewhere is attacked; when earthquakes hit Japan; when Hurricane combs Mexico; when Syria is bombed to ruins; when people tear each other apart in Chechnya; when explosions erupt in Mogadishu and London subways; when armed men storm Paris or elsewhere; when South Africans go gaga on xenophobia lynch; when young folks are without work and wander with anger at night in the inner cities, these are sufficient for the distress of humanity.
When the worst happens to humanity, we wear sack garments. The usual flood of love and solidarity that surges among the most diverse people represents aspirations that are latent in society: a cry for freedom of speech, for the right to be different, for everyone to be respected, for democracy. These are values that humanity asks for and expects.
Sadly, when Boko Haram insurgents rape our mothers, kidnap our girls, and roast our soldiers in the Northeast; when national army suffocate young Nigerians in Aba mud; when Fulani herdsmen sack our communities, slaughter men and women in Jos or elsewhere; they are just sufficient enough to wave our tribal and creedal flags forgetting that in the death of any man, our humanity is reduced.
While injustice, abuse of human rights, and bad governance are cries of ordinary Nigerians, party loyalists feel that the victims are mere members of opposition crying wolves. The hired poor liars use their social media posts for campaign of calumny, insulting the young and the aged as if tomorrow does not exist.
Today, even senior civil servants can no longer pay for their wards at school. What happens to iron if gold can rust! The jobless parents and the orphans alike tear themselves apart to pay the high school fees occasioned by government-imposed high taxes on private schools. Recently, Ebonyi State had to play the political Good Samaritan by helping the senior civil servants to offset their wards’ school fees, rather than asking why are they incapacitated.
In a civilized society, government’s duty is not to play the Good Samaritan in its own responsibility but to ensure that all roads leading from Jericho to Jerusalem are made safe for travelers so that no one will have to be waylaid. Indeed, humanity does not yet fully exist as long as there are walls between people and furthermore when rights become privileges. Humanity is a place of compassion and sharing. When someone suffers, all the members share that suffering, if someone is honored, all share his/her joy.
When we take sides with victims, we are only being human. When we insist that workers deserve decent salary, we are encouraging hard work and creativity. When we fight for the right of pensioners, we calm down those falsifying data in order to prolong their retirement to sheathe their swords since there will be milk after the revolution.
We are humans and each one of us, wherever we are, whoever we are, has a responsibility; and this responsibility has a name: solidarity. Our solidarity has not changed since the days of Jesus when he outlined them as actions to liberate the poor, downtrodden, prisoners and the blind.
We cannot love our people when we flood social media with photo-shopped achievements. We insult our origin when we elevate self above common good. If we are human, we should heal and free the hearts of masses we have hurt.
In my life, I have realized that following the path of people’s distress is the surest way to peace of soul. Any man who ignores people’s distress has no chance of being heard as a carrier of truth. Any Church who does not become first and foremost a friend for everybody, will not be able to find the path of their heart, the secret place where the Good News can be welcomed.
Solidarity is to fight for people’s freedom whoever they are. The freedom to be a true human is to be able to live in sympathy with others, especially to be the voice of the voiceless. Humanity is not achieved; it is being built. We can give it a future, each one in our own way, with respect for the others, with a liberty of conscience and of speech, with an understanding that the glories of this world will pass away but truth remains.
Each one of us is a small cell: necessary for its life. When it feels hurt, bashed, excluded, it is the whole body that suffers. Our humanity must be for those who are excluded and not a humanity that excludes. Every form of victimhood is a scar on our humanity.
Amidst the plan to mortgage our future through murky politics, we must resist spreading hate or violence. Cowards hate but the courageous love. We must be disposed to welcome people and their different views. Vilification is only a weapon of the weak. That flood of truth and love needs to surge among Nigerians and should not fall back. We should not underrate or overrate our leaders. Let love lead.
We cannot watch our society die with our arms folded; we are in this mess together. When people start expressing their thoughts, new ways open. New initiatives are taken. When people start expressing their thoughts, there is no more fear, no more dread but new energies are deployed everywhere.
http://felixucheakam.com/let-love-lead/