What are the possibilities of having an argument without an aggressive response in Nigeria?, as the word argue means "to present reason for or against". Arguments should be stimulating no matter how ignorant it may sound and also be used a means of educating each other.
"Rarely in our society will you find a person who will learn or see with anyone who makes them feel inferior and rarely will you find someone who will condone being educated by someone who is less qualified"
It is in our interest that we argue with the intention of positively enlightening our counterparts so we are all or nearly on the same page, my personal reason about Arguments is that "there are no rewards in achieving wisdom over your fellow man but ignorance", so we argue to be enlightened otherwise.
we can also argue that this issue is possibly one of the major reasons behind our shortfalls as a nation. A typical failing in having a constructive argument is in our House of Reps to our very own village square where we all believe that change is required for our nation but in some cases some of us spend more time on disagreeing on who is more enlightened than the other to prove a point of intelect. In other cases the assumption that the older you are the more wisdom you carry. "This is a myth" that has also been used as a way of taking advantage of the younger citizens who beg to differ when they see any wrong doings by the elders of our nation (please this shouldn't be taken as a way of disrespecting elders but as a way of constructively and respectfully arguing without fear of reprisal), as a Nation that wants to compete in modern society we need to be able to address each other appropriately to convey the message we are wanting to put across to our counterparts regardless of how ignorant the initiating conversation is.
Aggressive arguments (a.k.a AA) in Nigeria is a trait that's haunted us for a long time and we can agree that it has done very little in changing whatever it is we argue about because parties who argue for or against are left feeling a sense of either superiority or inferiority without any result to the originating argument. Some show ignorance in our arguments, which is not to say we are ignorant, (but the fact is, if you don't know, you don't know). We are all ignorant in our own areas and the sooner we realise that the easier it is for us to feed off information to make up our minds on what the facts are. Some also show off intelect to prove they are well read which sometimes raises the question of wether their knowledge aquisation was originally meant to show others how ignorant they are, their words are are like unrefined diamonds when they put their sentences together. You end up wishing "if they would only trade that attitude in for a more constructive one then would they be able to educate or enlighten others with their views". Are we guilty of always trying to prove a point to others that we know best in some of our arguments?, if we have ever ever questioned the intelligence of anyone who has argued for or against, are we guilty?, if we have ever used words that we wouldn't won't others to use against us in an argument, why then would we choose to use them?. Being right or wrong is not the main issue in arguemnet the ultimate result is being able to feed information that can be easily digested without any malicious intent to stimulate each others thinking. That way when in doubt we can speak to one another without the fear of being harrased or white washed with words that are neither productive or self-fulfilling. "There are no rewards in having knowledge over your fellow Man but ignorance, sharing knowlegde with others is nation building at work".
Being dragged into an an aggressive argument is one thing we should be able to recognise and immediately voice our constructive opinions and distance ourselves from it because there is never any positive gain from such Arguments, We as nation changing indivduals should be mindful of this, as this is what causes majority of conflicts in our society. There will always be individuals who indulge in AA's because it's a habit and way of life for others. If we look at it from the Nigerian Political scene, we will find a lot of AA's and these are meant to be our leaders, it makes me wonder why some of these arguments (arguments that lead to physical blows) are shown on TV when they are not really constructive to a nation, is this any wonder why politicians or dictators in Africa most of the time have their way because they feel that their views are more important than others. Some nation changing decisions are made in our nation and its citizens are not allowed to voice any opinions as we are not really important, rightly so maybe, as we ourselves have not shown any interest in issues that concern our Nations as we have spent more time having our own AA's that turn into personal vendettas.
I am not saying we as individuals should never have disagreements but it is how we handle it that determines how we positively progress, so in any disagreement we should be mindful of the end result (positve end result) of what it is we argue about as a nation still under construction. To get to where we are going we need to understand certain disciplines of life, one especially; respecting peoples opinions regardless of how ignorant it may seem and trying to constructively stimulate their thinking to see differently. If we don't then we will always find ourselvs wanting, we are a nation of intellects and every time we write about change and how we hope to effect change we should put it into practice however hard it maybe to do so sometimes. It is always hard to change from the norm but taking action is the foundation being put in place to curing our society.
Life is a one way journey and majority of the older people whom have come towards the end of their journeys always wished they had done a lot of things differently. In my opinion this is because all of us on earth were meant to have our earthly tasks i.e. making change to society alongside our own personal task, but most of us we will spend our lifetime on our own personal gains.
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