Nigeria, the self-proclaimed largest country in Africa, is in fact a big country with gigantic problems. Ever since Nigeria gained its independence in 1960, it has been mired in one problem or another. However, it is a good country, endowed with both human and material resources, despite its many contradictions and suffocating crises.

With its people distributed differently across the country’s 36 states and Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria’s economic potentialities contributed to the movement of various people through the process of economic interdependence. This has kept people from different ethnic groups together, but more often than not, some self-serving politicians continued to take advantage of people’s ignorance to enrich themselves, which is an impediment to their overall development.

The hope that a democratically elected government would address and facilitate the reduction or resolution of various ethnic and sectarian conflicts in Nigeria has long since faded. However, the country has continued to witness high-level ethnic, religious and anti-state violence.

In an attempt to reduce the use of firearms and other light weapons used by the perpetrators of these evil acts, newer but more dangerous means are being employed. These evil people are graduating daily in the use of more sophisticated weapons as the recurring explosions of bombs in different parts of the country can attest. In order to label Nigeria as Africa’s bad boy, evil people have devised means to destabilize the country’s leadership, defeating the nation’s numerous security teams. There is so much political maneuvering in this country that it has become increasingly difficult to separate religion from politics.

Although most of the conflicts in the country are attributed to religion and ethnicity due to the various ways in which religious organizations propagate their religion; distrust, selfishness, ignorance, suspicion, intolerance, etc., however, a more dangerous and serious problem is coming.

In fact, Nigeria’s recurring problems have attracted the attention of some African leaders who have offered some kind of help, suggestion or advice to ensure that Nigeria remains excellent. He was one of the leaders, in what seemed like a negative approach to the Nigerian problem, suggesting that the only way out of the recurring problems is for the country to be divided along ethnic or religious lines. I believe that such a division will not yet solve the problem, but rather a fundamental restructuring of the practice of the Nigerian form of federalism to allow greater regional control over resources.

The problems will also not be there if tribalism, which is a social philosophy and consciousness that emerges in a society that organizes itself into personalities, is properly dealt with. As a country in search of unity where the accident of birth, religion, geography, etc., are sacrosanct, Nigeria should remove confusing terms such as “state of origin”, “tribe”, “religion”, etc. from its system. , as requirements. for employment or school admission, as they help further strain our critical national balance and certainly do not enhance unity.

Developing a mechanism for regular dialogue and initiating programs of popular economic and political empowerment will help break the chains of religious fanaticism and primitive ethnocentrism. In other words, as a secular state, the issue of religious differences must be personal, not national. Religious leaders must desist from twisting theology for political advantage. All Nigerians must be made to understand that violence does not change anything, it only enhances and underlines, but never repairs; even when used in self-defense, the result is never justice, but victory!