The Acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo bravely described our current situation in a speech and said “In these past few years, more and more, we began to hear expressions such as Nigeria’s ethnic nationalities; we began to see more identification by race and geopolitical zones, Ndigbo people, Arewa people, the Yoruba people, South-South, North-East, South-West, North-West and South-East; and other parochial description that were hitherto unknown. The rise of ethnic chauvinism rode on the wings of several agitations. The narrative of most agitations centres around alleged marginalization and fears of dominance of one faith over the other.”

This has become a ticking bomb in our nation and as usual it divides us and we struggle to see the big picture and more important to see the solution and address the desires and aspirations that have brought us here. This is not the first time and amazingly we haven’t learnt much from our history.

In 2012 and the height of the fuel crisis I felt inspired and burdened to write the article blow titled: Fuel Subsidy; The Third Way! A long discourse to show we often take our eyes off the ball, The Government who are for the fuel subsidy and the others including the Nigerian Labour Congress, you & I etc, who are against the subsidy because we may have failed to look at a much bigger picture on how to address the real challenges in this country and determine what is good for this nation both in the short and long term.

I believe time and history as well as our current solution to our fuel problems has demonstrated since has shown the concept of a third alternative to be true and through pain and suffering at a great cost to our nation we have had to face that reality today.

The obvious question is what then must we do?
The article contains a discourse on finding a third way but this is a small extract that I hope captures the essence and I hope you can find time to read and joint our faith to finding this place we all need to go for the sake of our country and our children!s children!

” I have always believed because of my faith in God that there will always be a right way to respond to anything that happens to us in life, following our rights and a legal way to respond to things done against us that threatens s and our loved ones

On the other hand there is a wrong way to respond to the same scenarios where we do more harm than good and take the law into our hands and feel justified to responses because of what has been done to us.

However I have always known and believed that there is a third way, which is God’s way in which He reveals that deals with the injustice as it should be dealt with not a penny more or a penny less and provides justice without compromise and in ones best interest not just for now but for a profitable and productive future.

This third way is one that requires faith and revelation plus a determination not to be or look selfishly at ones immediate benefit. I realize that this is a secular society and must therefore put this on a much larger perspective for careful consideration.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. -Martin L King Jr

I would like us to consider a third a way out of this quagmire which the concept is captured and explained in Stephen R. Covey’s book “The 3rd Alternative: The Principle, Paradigm, and Process of Synergy There is a way to solve the toughest problems we face, even those that look unsolvable. ”

“No matter what approach we take to our problems, natural consequences will follow. War begets war, victims become dependent, reality crushes people in denial, cynics contribute nothing.

And if we keep doing the same things we’ve always done, hoping that this time the results will be different, we are not facing reality.”

Albert Einstein reportedly said, “The significant problems we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with which we created them.” To solve our most difficult problems, we must radically change our thinking—and that’s what this book is about…”

“…..There is a path that cuts through nearly all life’s dilemmas and deep divisions. There is a way forward. It’s not your way, and it’s not my way. It’s a higher way. It’s a better way than any of us have thought of before. I call it “the 3rd Alternative.”

I believe there is a third way for this nation again to resolve our conflicts right now and it’s not compromise but a third way that satisfies the valid aspirations dreams and desires of all of us as individuals, tribes etc but also one that keeps us together as a nation.

I know this sounds simplistic and many would say even a childish dream in view of what we have gone through as a nation but truly God asks us to come as children and more importantly believe that we can have this and we would have it! See Hebrews 11
This is not a fight about tribes and nationhood but it has to about change!

God bless Nigeria
Francis Madojemu

Link to the original article:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7Ow9kU_HScIYmFySnA4U0FxTGc