Folly of ethnic chauvinism

It goes a long way to show that a good number of people, though claiming to be educated and enlightened, lack wisdom.These pathetic self-anointed ethnic jingoist/ supremacists are predominant amongst the so-called three major ethnic groups in Nigeria who claim to be in majority but with nothing, absolutely nothing, to show for it.The elections are […]

It goes a long way to show that a good number of people, though claiming to be educated and enlightened, lack wisdom.
These pathetic self-anointed ethnic jingoist/ supremacists are predominant amongst the so-called three major ethnic groups in Nigeria who claim to be in majority but with nothing, absolutely nothing, to show for it.
The elections are over but not for some people who have transferred their aggression to find succour in ethnic bashing. PDP and APC membership cut across every ethnic stock but today it is becoming very difficult commenting on some friends’ wall because of some hate comments that they have allowed on their Facebook walls.
Now their problem is no longer APC or PDP but other ethnic groups.
You have become other ethnic nationalities fault-finder so that you can rush to the social media to use it to castigate and pull them down because suddenly you have become god.
You are fond of using the shortcomings of an individual to judge his entire region but when your kinsman makes the same mistake, you become blind, deaf and dumb or dismiss it as a personal issue not worthy of discussion.
You will never agree for the yardstick that you have used to judge other people to be used to judge your own ethnic stock!
 From the north to south, I have been opportune to visit all the states in Nigeria except Jigawa, Kebbi, Ebonyi and Ekiti.
Take a trip around Nigeria and you would see nothing but gross poverty, something that is obscure in the remotest parts of Europe and Asia.
While Europe, the Americas and Asia are developing and continually inventing, Africans are focused on hatred and wars.
The most disturbing is that most of these jingoists claim to be “righteous’ Muslims and Christians.
After preaching love, tolerance and forgiveness on Fridays and Sundays, these charlatans will rush to the social media to preach and spread hatred.
This is the same mentality that has destroyed and made Africa the poorest continent, despite being resource rich.
This is the same mentality that has plunged many parts of Africa into catastrophic civil wars that have destroyed lives and livelihoods.
This is the same mentality that has made Africa the laughing stock of the whole world.
Some of them claim they are defending their ethnicity but they end up whipping up negative ethnic sentiments against other ethnic groups.
What makes people believe that their ethnic stock is superior to others?
Can any tribe in Nigeria boast of singlehandedly manufacturing a vehicle, train, helicopter, television, motorcycle or even a bicycle?
Can such ethnic stocks scientifically compete with other ethnic nationalities around the world that have touched and impacted the world with technology and sciences?
Can they compete scientifically, for instance, with the Chinese, Japanese, Indians, Vietnamese, English, German, the Russian, etc?
Usman Mohammed Chenche, Lapai Niger State<[email protected]>