By Precious Athlorme
Culture according to experts on culture and traditions, is a total way of life of a group of people.
This includes the way they talk,think, eat,dress and even structure their social, economic and political development to suit their aims and objectives.
Did you know Nigeria is said to have about 300 languages with an estimated population of 200 million of different culture and traditions- Wow right !
Given the heterogenous nature of the culture of its citizens, Did you also know that Nigeria has been described by academics as the most difficult country to rule ? At least in the whole of black race, in view of its unrivalled size and huge population among the black race generally.
Therefore, the various cultural differences among Nigeria is said to be the major factor dividing the country on ethnic and divisive line.
However, there are some Nigerians who have been able to overcome the danger posed by culture in their social, economic and political life, with pieces of empirical evidence in their life.
From the marital point of view, we have many ethnic nationalities in Nigeria who transcend their ethnic boundary to marry in another place of different cultural identity.
For instance, the sister of this author,(Precious), is of Ebira extraction, but happily to a man from Iruekpen in Edo state.
Their marital vow has sort of cemented relationship between her husband’s relatives and her own in Ebira indigenes as well as her siblings.
Thus, culture has sort enhancing love between the couple, vis a vis their respective family.
Therefore, it is apt to describe culture as synonymous with love without boundary,as long as the two parties involve close their eyes to their differences and forge ahead as one.
With this, many nations have been able to unite for a common purpose which they believe will contribute to the advancement of the good of man and the society in general without inclination to those things that divide them.
In order words, culture has and can bridge love and understanding necessary for peaceful home if well used.
This is because couples of different cultural backgrounds have come to realise that culture, a mirror of people’s way of acting in various ways to achieve their purpose in life, is a veritable vehicle through which people of different cultural dimensions can utilise to cement relationship and move the word forward in unison.
Most of the social, economic and political problems confronting Nigeria and other countries in the world today is because people fail to see culture as a challenge to build the nation rather than other wise.
After all,God does not make mistake in creating people of different cultural backgrounds but to show His supremacy His us as humans.
Precious is a student of Federal University of Technology,Minna and an author.
