If you have travelled far and wide around the world, you would notice that people at different places behave, respond, and have different dispositions to issues even when they are regarded as general. Certainly, if you have not moved an inch from your place of origin, you must have noticed this also. 

It is not mutually exclusive to places but people. It happens everywhere with everyone. Some people have tried to qualify this with different words, names or phrases but generally, it could be referred to as DIVERSITY. Depending on the context and topics addressed, different writers have given it names they so wanted. It could be as a result of myth or beliefs. It could also be referred to as an ideology, a set of beliefs or a pathway. It is in this diversity that we find the beauty of our plurality in beliefs, cultures, religions and total ways of life. It is the natural mechanism for check and balance. 

However, there are issues where having a different idea could be viewed as wrong depending on the parties involved and how salient the issue is. It is a new year and we have all concluded our new year resolutions (though I have reservations about this yearly ritual). If it is a ritual at all. 

In this new year, we would go through a lot as a nation; the downward movement of the economy, insecurity and a host of other challenges I hope we would overcome as a nation. More importantly, in this year of the Lord, we would come together, though in diverse ways to elect (if we have ever done that is a debate for another day) or select the minority that would either lead us to the glory land promised years ago or rule us to the ruins predicted to come in this year. Whatever we do, make or mar, we might have to enjoy or endure for the next four years. 

In the thick of this, fellow countrymen have taken stands, made intentions known and had chosen camp(s). It is a welcomed development, a very interesting thing to do. However, few charlatans have decided to see us along different lines. If you are pro-this, you are automatically anti-that. 

We have all forgotten that we have right to association just like we have freedom of speech that we have come to abuse. I must therefore commend the very sane amongst us who have in the face of every missile of words remained steadfast for whoever they believe in or pretend to trust. 

During the last 6 months ASUU strike, I enjoined that "we take our stands, stand for our causes and fight for our causes to take stands". This is why it is soul soothing that some people believe in the administration of President Jonathan and they are standing by him so he could continue his transformation agenda till 2019. It is in this spirit that some also believe in the Buhari dream and have given it their all. 

However, some have played their folly to the gallery by saying GEJ is clueless and Buhari is ruthless so they would sit on the fence. Celebrate not for whatever the outcome of our polls is, you won't be spared from being a partaker. It is for this singular reason that I beseech you to go through your new year plans again and pick a camp to align with. 

The fence you are sitting on has been rigged with explosives that would tear you apart and sentence you to a life of regret. Don't sit on the fence, it is suicidal. 

Let me leave you with the words of Bertolt Brecht; “The worst illiterate is the political illiterate. He hears nothing, sees nothing, takes no part in political life. He doesn’t seem to know that the cost of living, the price of beans, of flour, of rent, of medicines, all depend on political decisions. He even prides himself on his political ignorance, sticks out his chest and says he hates politics. He doesn’t know, the imbecile, that from his political non-participation comes the prostitute, the abandoned child, the robber and worst of all, corrupt officials, the lackeys of exploitative multinational corporations”. I wish you all a happy new year. 

Do you think there is a Saint in the Nigeria's political terrain? Let us keep the conversation going.