Between Darell Shaav & Emeka Ossai, By Ballason Gloria Mabeiam

 

My name is Darell Shaav. I am seven years old and in primary four. I want to be a Field Biologist and a musician when I grow up. I want to rediscover the solar system and find out why human beings cannot live in the other eight planets; but first, I would have to check those planets. I am thinking of a wire that can pass electricity to the eight planets. I think with electricity, we could start up some activities on those planets and see where it takes us to.
“You come across as someone who is humane and wants to help people; why don’t you want to study Medicine and be a doctor;” I asked. ‘No, I don’t want to be a doctor. I don’t like to touch blood.’ When asked his passing shot to those who may listen to him he said: ‘I would like to advise my friends and young people that life is not all about money, there are things that are more beneficial than what we want to possess, no need to be greedy.’ Few days after our conversation in Jos, I would learn that my young friend had been appointed a commissioner of Education in the Children’s cabinet of Plateau State.
I pause for a while on Darell, only to introduce you to my friend, Emeka Ossai.
Emeka Ossai is a Project Lead at Inceptum Services, an organization that aims to raise one million student entrepreneurs across African universities by 2020. He says the goal is to bridge the gaps between what students are taught at the university and the skills needed for the real world, whether in corporate Nigeria,Africa or in their various entrepreneurial pursuits. His deliverable is to discover & nurture 1 MILLION student entrepreneurs across African campuses by 2020 by providing alternative educational models that will equip youths with 21st century skills.
Another excitement for him is working with communities in solving problems that will improve the life of people through sustainable means. He credits himself as a good student of time who has learnt the beautiful lessons that failure and adversity teaches in the journey of entrepreneurship and agrees with Peter Diamandis that the world’s biggest problems present the world’s biggest business opportunity.
Because Emeka has such a fertile mind and believes in scalable impact, I was interested in having his views on how best the Nigeria-Biafran question could best and permanently be addressed. My friend held me spell-bound. The real problem, he said is that the real conversation has been swept under the rug. When the Civil War ended, it appeared both sides were to weary to work out a long term reconciliation and healing plan so they worked out a quick fix arrangement. The issues, Emeka believes, should have all been placed on the table where the two sides would listen carefully to the narrative of the other because both sides had their rights and wrongs.
It would have then made sense to say well, we have listened to each other, on one and four, I was right and you were wrong, on two and six you were right and I was wrong. How do we crystallize on the right and even out on the wrong? Mr. Ossai explained the sad tales of people whose money were stolen by the banks and who before the war were stupendously rich but had to live afterwards from hand to mouth. It’s hard to forget such drastic turn of events, he surmised.
I listened intently and became even more curious on the way forward.” How do we go from here Emeka? You know we have built strong alliances across divides and we need to permanently deal with the malignant identity problem in Nigeria. I fear that if we do not take this conversation and move it to the right post, we may be dealing with a Tsunami the next time the whirlwind comes again.” He agreed with me and turned the matter in his fertile mind a bit then began to talk on the solutions.
Gloria, if I were, the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, I will appoint a Minister of Integration. His job will be to put in place an organic strategy for integration of the Nigerian people. I will mandate him to organize a national tour where people from one part of the country will experience the food, dance and culture of other parts of the country. Nigerians will then find that the foods are not so different, the dances are similar to those in other parts and that we are really more alike than different.
The No Victor No Vanquished declaration seems to have short circuit the conversation, Emeka continued, but we can still reopen the talk and speak about all the uncomfortable issues. It will hurt but that will allow the hate to go out and steam out the resentment. What we have hitherto done is to be politically correct on this matter and in the place of political correctness no one wins.
His thought simmered for a bit but I wanted to hear him more. “How do we address the issue in a civil manner?” I poked; ‘There is a strong distrust that needs to be addressed. Let me illustrate it with Obama. He is core black raised by white grandparents so when the whites and blacks are protesting, it is difficult for him to take extreme views because he has both black and white connections and he remembers them first as people and not the pigment of their skin. Inter-ethnic marriage could be a good place to begin. Our fathers lived in the clouds, we need to put our feet down.
There is a mindset required for the kind of transformation that is required. Remember Gloria that when 12 spies were sent to spy out Canaan the promised land, only Joshua and Caleb returned with a good report. All of the other ten were used to a certain negative mentality because they were used to negativity. Eventually, the minority report impeached that of the majority. We need a new breed of people who see opportunity for healing in this crisis. We need a strategic integration policy, a strong integration vibe that resonates from top to bottom. We should move to a point where identity is broadened so for instance instead of having one state of origin, we can broaden it to five to include a state where an individual was born, a state where a person has paid tax the longest, the state where a man or woman has for long resided, the state where one’s mother was born or where one’s father was born.
At this point in our conversation, I was convinced that the problem is not as complicated as it is made to look. Emeka Ossai will be leading the online discussion on Tuesday 19th December,2017 as we dwell on the House of Justice’s Summit’s theme: Building a Nation of Justice and Peace. The event will be chaired by the Emir of Birnin Gwari, Mallam Zubair Jibril Mai Gwari II and holds at the Yaradua Hall of Murtala Mohammed Square Kaduna. Former Head of State,General Yakubu Gowon, is billed to present the keynote address. Senator Ben Murray-Bruce, Prof Chidi Anselm Odinkalu, diplomats, members of the Civil Society and people of all walks will sit in a convivial atmosphere and over dinner to find permanent ways we can heal. Jesse Jagz is billed to perform at the event.
Whether you can make it to the event or not, it is important that we all join the hash tag social media awareness #HOJ-Nigeriaofjustice; #HOJ-building a nation of justice &peace. We cannot afford to sit on our hands, it’s time to roll our sleeves and find permanent solutions to the issues that plague us. Thank you Darell Shaav. Thank you Emeka Ossai, you both give me reason to believe.

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