There are moments in life when achievement is not merely marked by a certificate, but by the quiet testimony of character. This is one of such moments. Dear Sir, Fabakary Manneh, I know what it means to be a man shaped by hope, one who carries the weight of life like a sacred duty, yet refuses to surrender to the fatigue of the journey. To be such a man is to live in constant negotiation with tomorrow, believing, against all odds, that it will be kinder than today. Today, I do not celebrate you merely because you have graduated from the University of The Gambia. Degrees are common; conviction is not. Many leave institutions as educated individuals, but few emerge as enlightened souls. You belong to the latter. You earned a Bachelor’s degree in Geography, yes, but beyond that, you have mastered a deeper discipline: the geography of humanity. You understand the invisible borders that divide men race, tribe, language and you have chosen to rise above them. In a world increasingly fr...
They were born on Nigerian soil.
They speak our languages, bear our names, even carry our green passports.
But their hands are stained with the blood of fellow Nigerians, and their hearts are divorced from any loyalty to the land they claim.
Those who burn villages in the night, those who hijack roads with bullets instead of ideas, those who turn religion into a sword, are they truly ours?
Yes, by birth.
But not by loyalty.
Not by conscience.
Not by nationhood.
The truth is uncomfortable: many of these killers are the children of neglect.
They are the products of a system that educated them poorly, fed them sparingly, employed them rarely, and left them to be mentored by violence.
When Nigeria abandoned its duty to shape minds and instill hope, chaos took its place. And now we see young men, and sometimes even boys, wielding guns, not dreams.
Loyalty is not blind obedience. It’s not silence in the face of injustice. Loyalty is the will to protect what is shared. It is a commitment to community over carnage.
And we have far too many people in positions of power, and in the streets, who have chosen self over society.
Some do it in suits, others in rags. But betrayal is betrayal.
What Nigeria faces is not just insecurity, it is a moral civil war.
The divide is no longer north or south, Christian or Muslim, Yoruba or Fulani.
The divide is between those who build and those who destroy.
Between those who see life as sacred and those who see blood as currency
What Must We Do?
We must rebuild the Nigerian identity, not around tribes or borders, but around shared values:
The value of human life.
The principle of justice.
The dignity of labor.
The right to dream without fear.
And we must call out the hypocrisy: those who shout "One Nigeria" by day, but sponsor violence by night.
Final Word
Yes, they are Nigerians. But only in name.
True citizenship is not stamped on paper, it is engraved in action.
And until loyalty returns to our land, we will remain a nation populated by strangers.
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