Hello people of South-East and South-South Nigeria, this is your best friend Orient Harmony again. I am an ideology that is about showing brotherly interest, brotherly concern, brotherly kindness, and brotherly care among all our peoples.
Today I am going to be short and very sweet! Ha ha ha!
By now we have heard that for administrative purposes South-East and South-South together is known as the Lower Niger Bloc, and it is just a temporary name. Later when the time comes, all of us will choose the permanent name for it by democratic voting.
Many people used to think that Restructuring would be the best option, but it is getting quite clear now that Nigeria is going to break completely. You may be sad about it, but from what I see, most people are more happy about it. Our Yoruba brothers are exceedingly glad to exit Nigeria and to have their own Oduduwa Nation. When I think about it, I agree with them. Yoruba have been held down by Nigeria. The same for all of us too. Every single ethnic nationality in the Lower Niger Bloc (aka LN Bloc) has been prevented, and held down, and been caged up by Nigeria. This cannot have
been God’s plan for us! Every human being is born free, and should be free, living in the best
environment possible to bring out whatever potentials God put in him or her. The new nation that the LN Bloc will be, will be one where every one of us will be able to be the best that we can be!
There are different ways to form a country. Sometimes a country can be made up of people of same or similar ethnicity. For example people of the English ethnicity formed England, people of Irish ethnicity formed Ireland, people of Japanese ethnicity formed Japan, etc. But this is not the only way to form a country. The greatest country in the world was formed in a different way, that is the
United States of America. USA is a great country but it has people of hundreds of different ethnicities. USA has ethnicities from Europe, from Asia, from Africa, from Arabia – from everywhere! Yet USA is a great and strong country. Our new LN Bloc country will be more like the USA because different ethnic nationalities will come together to create it.
In time our new LN Bloc nation will come to be. Right now, we can visualise it and have ideas of how we want it to be. I think America gives us a good example to follow, don’t you? There are different types of nationalism. Where the country is made up of one ethnicity, they can have Ethnic Nationalism, eg the Yoruba Oduduwa Nation. But in a country like America with lots of ethnicities it is anchored in CIVIC NATIONALISM. Civic Nationalism is what our new LN Bloc country should also be founded on. Civic Nationalism is based on shared ideals not on ethnicity. So in America, your
ethnicity does not matter, but you must accept some ideals in order to be a citizen there, and those born there, keep those ideals too. Civic Nationalism has the ideals and values of: freedom, tolerance, equality and individual rights.
To end my Reflections for today, here are some points for you too to reflect upon.
Nationalism is a sense of belonging and community, shared between people of the
same nation. There are different forms of Nationalism. You can have Ethnic Nationalism (eg for Yoruba), or you can have Civic Nationalism.
Nigeria is likely to split up, and LN Bloc can be the greatest nation out of it, by like America, being founded on Civic Nationalism.
Nationhood is not just defined by ethnicity, it can be defined by agreed upon shared values
and ideals.
LN Bloc has good examples to follow. The founders of America wrote the Declaration of
Independence which includes this well-known bit:
”We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.”
After the American Revolution they deepened the idea of Civic Nationalism by writing the
United States Constitution, which creates a nation not based on ethnicity but based on social and political ideals. This is the way to go for the new LN Bloc nation.
Here’s a new term to consider: Lower Niger Nationalist (LN Nationalist), this is a person from the LN Bloc who is sold on the idea of our new nation and just as Americans from different ethnicities focus on building a great America, so too does the LN Nationalist focus on building a great new nation in the LN Bloc based on Civic Nationalism.
Until the next time, this is Orient Harmony signing off!
