Nigerians are, perhaps, the most religious people in theworld. But to tell<\/p>\n
it like it is, they are very ungodly and their religiousrituals are mostly
\nshallow. They are not interested in the important things ofspirituality
\nlike love, mercy and the pursuit of peace. Nigerian Christians arenot
\nreally interested in keeping the message of our Lord Jesus rather they
\nwantto use His name to make money and live in perpetual comfort. They are
\nfull ofjealousy, envy, pride, backbiting, malice and all sorts of evil.
\nThose whofollow the teachings of Jesus are so few and far between.
\nThe Social media isnow an avenue for them to vent their anger and spread
\ntheir hate speeches. They so-calledinternet warriors are so ignorant of
\nwhat life is all about. They seriouslythink they can hate their
\nneighbours, engage in thoughtless prattling and stillgo to heaven. These
\nignorant set of people are badly taught by pastors thatdevote more time in
\nprosperity messages.<\/p>\n
Nigeria will be a far better place if onlythese
\npastors can devote more time in preaching the dimensions of love. The
\nlovemessage is what Christianity is all about and anybody who is not
\nactivelywalking in love is not working for God. Lots of Yoruba and Igbo
\nChristians areso shamelessly guilty of this issue. Their lives will be
\ncompletely meaninglessif they do not insult one another on a daily basis.
\nIt is like the very air they breathe.
\nThe demolishedOshodi market by the administration of Akinwunmi Ambode has
\npresented another opportunity for these merchants of hate to insult and
\nabuse one another.\u00c2\u00a0 People are so jittery, soself conscious and so quick
\nto impute motive in everything. \u00c2\u00a0The angry reaction of some of my Igbo
\nbrothersover the market are wrong and must be condemned. \u00c2\u00a0The location of
\nthat market is dangerous and noresponsible government should allow such a
\nmarket to operate there. Any accidentat that spot will be calamitous and
\nwill bring a harvest of deaths.\u00c2<\/p>\n
I totally agree with Robert Obioha whoequally wrote on this issue.
\nAccording to him, Igbo traders should be part ofthe effort to transform
\nLagos into a mega city. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153They should not constitute astumbling block. I
\nbelieve the traders were given enough time and opportunityto remove their
\ngoods and relocate before the December demolition. The Lagosstate governor
\nshould not be castigated or branded an enemy by any Igbo.
\nThe erstwhile aide to the then Governor , Babatunde Fasholaon Women Ethic
\nGroup Mobilization\\Empowerment, Barr Nkechi Chukwueke is also ofthe view
\nthat the demolition of the popular Owonifari Market was not targetedat the
\nIgbos or any other ethnic group. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I have told a lot of people from
\ntheeast that the exercise was carried out in good faith by the State
\nGovernment torid Lagos of crime, restore sanity to the area and ensure
\nthat the master planof Lagos State was not tampered with. From the facts
\navailable, the stateGovernment gave enough notice to the traders there and
\neven providedalternative market for them to relocate, but many of them
\nrefused to go becausethey believed they won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make much sales if they go
\nto the new place. The truthis that we must rally round the Governor to
\nensure that Lagos works. The Governormeans well for Lagos and he stand to
\ngain nothing by demolishing people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122sshops. These are laws of the land
\nand they must be obeyed by all the state toprogress.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 Nigeria will
\nneverdevelop without unity between the Igbos and the Yorubas. I sincerely
\nrecommendwhat Dim Odumegwu Ojukwu tagged the handshake across the Niger.
\nThese are thetwo most talented ethnic groups in Nigeria. If they
\nChristians among themcannot unite and live in peace then it is big shame
\non them. We should be tiredof all these silly name-callings and acrimony.
\nAccording to Chuks Illoegbulem,the feud between the Igbo and the Yoruba
\nethnic groups is contrived by theNorthern oligarchy. He believes it is
\npart of their divide and rule strategyand that every other explanation
\nadduced in the explanation of this phenomenoncan only be peripheral. But I
\nam of the view that this explanation isperipheral and childish.
\nIndividuals and people should be responsible for theiractions.
\n\u00c2\u00a0I will end this articleby quoting a piece by Femi Aribisala in the
\nVanguard newspaper. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Yorubasand Ndigbo do themselves great
\ndisservice by seeing themselves as arch-enemies.Within the framework of
\nNigerian politics, this has limited the freedom ofaction of both ethnic
\ngroups. If the one is prominent in this political party,the other is more
\nlikely to align itself with another party. This means the onecan always be
\nmanipulated against the other. Instead, the political spaceshould be
\nopened up by the possibility that the Yoruba and the Igbo can form
\nanalliance. That eventuality is not implausible, especially because they
\nactuallyhave common interests.ByIKECHUKWU ORJIOrji is a Journalist and
\nMedia Consultant. ikechukwuorji@yahoo.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nigerians are, perhaps, the most religious people in theworld. But to tell it like it is, they are very ungodly and their religiousrituals are mostly shallow. They are not interested…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33990,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\n