It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.
~Maya Angelou
Nigeria is home to 36 states, and with about 371 tribes it could be very easy to not see Nigeria as one. Yet, contrary to the general belief, our diversity is one of our strengths? What if our being so different yet so alike could be used to our advantage?
Imagine for a moment that everyone was exactly like you. At first thought you might think “at least there’ll be no annoying co-workers, everyone would have sense” but think again, not only is there a 67% (please don’t ask us to verify these numbers) chance that life would be extremely boring after about the first week, you would also come to realise that whether you see it or not that “annoying co-worker” actually helps you either get to know yourself better or helps you improve!
As you read the title of this article you probably rolled your eyes because you think the issue of Nigeria’s unity has been over-flogged and is just a marketing stunt around independence day but what if, just what if we’ve been going about it wrong? What if instead of trying to force people to see why they should cohabit we let them experience it? What if instead of all the talk, we found quality ways to show them? One avenue that would have been perfect would be the NYSC program but we all know how that’s going so what if you tried something else. Something like co-working?
The basic concept of a co-working space is to provide entrepreneurs and businesses with office space and amenities they need at reasonable rates but Ventures Park (a Co-working space) is taking it steps further by making conscious efforts to build a community around it. So this has resulted in a community filled with people from every Nigerian region and – you guessed it – Coexisting. They are consciously working with each other, building great things, having fun together and not regarding whether someone is from their tribe or not
To show and celebrate our diversity as a strength, Ventures Park will be having an event to mark Independence Day. The event will hold on the 29th Sept 2017, there’ll be simulated tours of the 6 Nigerian regions, food, drinks, a DJ and most importantly Nigerians from across the country!
Want to celebrate Nigeria’s diversity as a strength and not a weakness and get to be a part of this iconic movement to see each other as Nigerians and not as “people from different tribes that happen to live in the same country” then don’t miss this!
To RSVP for the event on Friday follow this link à www.lastfridayatvp.eventbrite.com
