by Michael Ace

A northerner died in the west by the hands of a man who said his fathers taught the sun how to rise, no one cared to know why- they believed it was an attribute of a country with more than one tongue. They said after all, he was a stranger, a man who leaves his father’s house to ally elsewhere must find what he seeks; the judge said he was way too far from home. Death was that cheap in a foreign land.

On September 30, 1960, we made a dust of every white man’s misdeed and swept it under the carpet. No one speaks ill of the hand that gives him what he desires; especially when it comes along with a revolution. Afterall, they are those created in the image of God. Tribalism lay deep in my brother’s skin, it was a written program by these same men who said the blacks are not yet human.

There was something we weren’t so deep and keen to understand even though it was quite audible and clear in our national anthem and painted in the colours of our national flag. That which is: “It’s easier to exist in slavery than to live in freedom, for the latter comes with a greater responsibility”

But if peradventure you cross the border tomorrow into the land of the white man, tell him black is the colour of God.

Move closer so he can see the beauty on your skin. Tell him black is the heart of an American who sees you not as black but as a fellow human. Don’t forget to tell him that black is everything that sees a white light beaming laudably in a full-moon of vivid and diverse differences. Black is beautiful and so is everything that shares in its pride.

A crucifix is a symbol of sacrifice, love, grace, peace and true nationalism. I first saw it on the back of a man who lost his breath to save the whole of mankind.  Yesterday, a soldier walked by my window. I didn’t see his gun or his cloth that smelled the remains of war even from the distance, I only read from his eyes an epistle to all men- the symbol of patriotism and sacrifice.

I see my nation on the edges of a crucifix: the bad, the good and the ugly. Though different tongues but believes in one voice.

I believe in One Nigeria

Op–ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija

Op-ed Editor