THE MYSTERY OF NIGERIA VIA ROMANTIC NATIONALISM

(An epistolary article to the aspiring presidents and the nation)

[I seek refuge from all-mighty God] As youth amongst great people in great nation and on behalf of great minds, my works centre to one goal, to convey the messages of the Holy Books to we people of Nigeria and thus to encourage us to think about basic faith-related issues, such as the existence of God, His unity and the hereafter, and to remind ourselves of some important issues about national clauses and strike while the iron is hot for national consensus. It is an article to change our mindsets and champion minds for a new era.  Perhaps, we are naive, but we hope that, the negative influences of religion, tribe or party which create or aggravate conflicts, can be reduced, and the positive influences of religion, tribe or party which eliminate or attenuate conflicts/corruptions can be promoted with this medium.

Commonly, romanticism is understood as romance or the romantic movement of the nineteenth century, but besides these forms, romanticism is also closely related to Nigerian political sentiments. Chiefs or leaders among them are "romantic nationalism," which appeared at the end of the nineteenth century, and exercised a great influence in the world until the middle of the twentieth.

First, it must be clearly stated that our criticism is not against nationalism per se, but against "romantic nationalism." There is a great deal of difference between the two. Nationalism, in the most common sense of the term, refers to an individual's love for his people and for his country. This is a good and completely legitimate sentiment. Since it does not go against religion or party, it has no damaging effect for humanity. Just as an individual's love for his mother or father is a legitimate feeling, so also is love for the nation, that nurtured him in a common faith and culture, a legitimate feeling.

Nationalistic sentiments become illegitimate when they become irrational or overly passionate. If a person, out of love for his country or community, begins, without justification, to harbour feelings of hostility towards another nation or community, or tramples over the rights of other nations and people in the interests of his own-for example, if he seizes their land or confiscates their property-he has exceeded legitimate bounds. Or, when he lets his love for his nation or community turn into a kind of racism or tribalism, that is, when he claims that his own nation or community is inherently superior to another, he has adopted an irrational outlook.

God draws our attention to this irrational nationalism in the Holy Book. What is described in the following verses as "fanatical rage," is a characteristic feature of societies who are divorced from the religion.

“Those who disbelieve filled their hearts with fanatical rage-the fanatical rage of the Time of Ignorance-and God sent down serenity to His Messengers and to the believers, and bound them to the expression of heedfulness which they had most right to and were most entitled to. God has knowledge of all things.¹”

While the above verse speaks of "fanatical rage," it also speaks of the serenity that God bestows upon those who believe in Him. This juxtaposition points to the fact that if a person who loves his kindred, his clan or his community, harbours hatred or aggression towards others as a result of that love, his behaviour is errant. On the contrary, God desires His servants to enjoy peace, tranquillity, unity, solidarity, equity, justice and security; in other words, the spiritual state that God desires for His followers is one where reason is foremost. "Fanatical rage" does not permit such a desirable condition to exist, but pits one group against another, based solely on differences in language, colour, tribe or clan.

God described this "fanatical rage" already 1400 years ago in the Koran, and today it is still possible to witness its effects in every part of the world. There are people in Nigeria who strangle or stab others to death or intimidate of just because they belong to a different tribe or party. In Europe and Africa, particularly in Nigeria, a football match deteriorates into armed combat when "hooligans" beat fans of the opposing team almost to death, just because they belong to the opposing side. The influence of "fanatical rage" pervades not only the lowest classes, but also the highest echelons of some societies. There are many countries that exploit the matter of a simple border dispute as an excuse to carry out open acts of aggression. To satisfy their belligerent tendencies, they throw their countries into a war, persisting stubbornly in their aggression for years, plunging not only the citizens of the enemy country, but even their own people into misery. Those authorities who make such decisions are afflicted with what we are referring to as "fanatical rage." As explained in the above quoted verse, he who "fills his heart with fanatical rage" lives in ignorance.

Because romantic nationalists believed they were to find truth through "feeling and intuition," and not through reason, they came to adopt a most confused view of the world, one which reflected their poor spiritual condition. The American professor of History, Gerhard Rempel, in his article entitled "Reform, Liberation and Romanticism in Prussia," describes the spiritual state of the romantic nationalists in the following words: Romanticists sought to escape into fantasy, sentimentality and allegory. Spiritually they toyed with death, with brooding, with the sombre, opaque recesses of the night. Novalis [a pioneer of the early German Romantics] said: ''Life is a sickness of the spirit.'' What we have here in Nigeria is the beginning of aesthetic pessimism…. Romanticism uncovered the deeper irrational forces of the human spirit….

The foundation of romantic nationalism was based on "feeling." This fanciful ideology produced individuals who were cut off from reality, lost in the confusion of their own minds which is synonymous to the word "greed". Romanticism, by enslaving people to their feelings, leads them to lose touch with reality, and in this manner, can be compared to the psychological disease of schizophrenia. (Those who suffer from schizophrenia are completely cut off from reality and live in a world created by their own imaginations. Instances are like;  Greed, sadism, sorcery, self aggrandizing, tyranny, embezzling, whore-monger, miserliness, sycophancy, charades, bribery, marginalising, trafficking, prostitution, money and power hungry, kidnapping, cybercrime, fanatical raging, contrariety, irascibility and so on.) 
[Greed in its widest meaning alone can be described as a permanent slavery]

The disease of schizophrenia provides a poignant analogy of the spiritual condition of romantic nationalism or federalism, which is based on a number of errant ideas, chief among them being the notion of "blood" and "fatherland," which it then idolizes and turns into obsessions to be pursued blindly. We pointed out that sentimentality as a weapon used by Satan to divert humanity from the way of God, and to lead them into misery. This trap that Satan has set for humanity is clearly evidenced in romantic nationalism. In the Holy Book, God relates how Satan submits those under his influence to a state of bad leadership, mismanagement and misuse of public funds, poverty, insecurity of lives and properties, injustice and incompetence, under-utilization of resources, unequipped tertiaries, unemployment, cyber-crooks , prostitutions, environmental hazards, terror, confusion and hostility etc.  Nigeria's catastrophes (Flood of corruptions)

• He (God) said, "Go! And as for any who follow you, your repayment is Hell, repayment in full! Stir up any of them you can with your voice and rally against them your cavalry and your infantry and share with them in their children and their wealth and make them promises! The promise of Satan is nothing but delusion." ²

The above verse relates how Satan, using those individuals under his control, will "entice any of them whom he can with his voice" and "rally against them his cavalry and his infantry"-the means to provoke romantic nationalism.

In the Holy Books, God commands human beings to use their minds, to think, to consider what God has created and, in this way, to come to faith. However, the romantic approach to religion excludes reason; it doesn't lead people to use their minds, on the contrary, it encourages them not to think at all. According to the romantic notions about the religion, it is often deemed commendable for a person to abuse themselves and cause themselves pain. In short, according to the romantic approach, religion is something that encourages one's tendencies to idolize individuals, to be unreflective, nostalgic, self-effacing and self-destructive. It is a counterfeit system, comprised of beliefs and practices totally alien to true religion. Instead of learning what God wants from them, and living their lives accordingly, people prefer to continue the approach to religion, the behaviour and stereotypical ways of thinking inherited from their ancestors. They do not lead their lives according to a rational assessment of the conditions surrounding them, but hold on to the same old traditional patterns of thought and behaviour. This is a perversity against which God warns strongly in many verses of the His Book. Here are a few examples:

•  When they are told, "Come to what God has sent down and to the Messenger," they say, "What we found our fathers doing is enough for us." What! Even if their fathers did not know anything and were not guided! ³

•  Whenever they commit an indecent act, they say, "We found our fathers doing it and God commanded us to do it too." Say: "God does not command indecency. Do you say things about God you do not know?" ⁴

• When they are told: "Follow what God has sent down," they say, "No, we will follow what we found our fathers doing." What! Even if Satan is calling them to the punishment of the Blazing Fire? ⁵

If a person wants to be able to practise the kind of religion that God wants him to practice, he must first escape the mire of romanticism. As He has commanded in the following verse: "That is because God is the Real…" ⁶, God is the Real, and to understand this, it is necessary to be a "realist". What an ideal brand believe! Have you been watching news on television and wondering, 'What is the world turning to?' Tragic things happen so suddenly and unexpectedly that no human can predict what tomorrow will bring. However, examine yourself the evidence you are living in. Those who are captivated by romantic ideals, on the other hand, are influenced either by perverse ideologies, such as romantic nationalism or communism, or lose touch with the notions of wisdom and sincerity. Fact of my expressions according to the scripture that unfolds about romantic nationalism are like:

• And they were scattered, because there is no shepherd: and they became meat to all the beasts of the field, when they were scattered.

•  My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill: yea, my flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them.

• Therefore, ye shepherds, hear the word of the LORD;

• As I live, saith the Lord GOD, surely because my flock became a prey, and my flock became meat to every beast of the field, because there was no shepherd, neither did my shepherds search for my flock, but the shepherds fed themselves, and fed not my flock;

• Therefore, O ye shepherds, hear the word of the LORD;…………….⁷

•  Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding…⁸

In conclusion, on behalf of the youths, my intent objectives yearns to renounce the “Nigeria’s mystery” of which the complacent and nonchalant attitude of honest or realist people to socio-political issues could lead to their extinction. The quest for peace and unity is an enormous task for us all. Nigeria must reflect its effectiveness and greatness especially in present time of our golden age and embark to throw in the cards of moment of ridicule by other nations. if it is one, is to be found by ascertaining where this uncanny knowledge on which prophecies now literally fulfilled are based , can be shown to reside for national development.

In everything, there is portion for everything except mind!

Sodiq Bolaji Q.

Ideal Realist! 

Founder: “Ideal Youth Realist Network” writes.........vide to sodbol@yahoo.com.

Thanks a bunch for reading.

You are indeed a realist toady by God’s Grace(Amen)

Happy Golden Jubilee! God Bless Nigeria! (Great people, Great Nation!)

LONG LIVE THE PEOPLE OF NIGERIA

LONG LIVE THE PEOPLE OF NIGERIA IN DIASPORA

LONG LIVE THE PEOPLE OF AFRICA

ONE LOVE NIGERIA!!! WA!ZO!BIA!

{Reference:  [1.(Q. 48:26), 2. (Q. 17:63-64),  3. (Q. 5:104),  4. (Q, 7:28), 5. (Q, 31:21), 6. (Q. 22:62) ,  7. (Ezek 34:5-9) 8. (Prov.3:13.)]}

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