The Sheraton Abuja Caps

Today, I spent the day in Sheraton Abuja on a Board meeting. As I arrived to the venue, to join my colleagues arriving from around the world, an artwork positioned at the right of the main lobby entrance caught my attention: a Nigerian flag with different types of caps from our diverse ethnic groups.

As I looked at that work, my mind flashed on the hostility in the nation. The creator of the art had fused the caps, making sure they largely touched one another. It was a beauty to behold – a symbol of unity for a nation built to be a force but has been stifled on the sclerosis of imaginations and visions.

Sheraton put it out there to symbolize the makeup of this nation with has latent promises but bound in unborn tomorrow but died yesterday paralyses. As I watched, my mind flashed: who can unite these caps at the physical element where the strength of our diversity becomes a potent force to unleash the molten magma of economic breakthroughs, triggering a hopeful nation that is dynamic, prosperous and equitable?

As those caps joined in artistic unison on the purity of white, enveloped by the energy of green, nothing could be more perfect to behold. Green is the symbol of health; white is the purity of mind. With all sub-nations seated on top of those emblems, Nigeria was engineered for greatness. Yet, stepping out of that Sheraton, looking deep into the horizons, the art fades: Nigeria cannot be capped because there is no triumph yet.

Good people, we must find answers to make those caps blossom. Those are the Nigerian people – young, old, north, south, and ALL.

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