Jonah Obajeun – A case for our extreme togetherness
Extremely Together’s Young Leader from Nigeria, whose work advocates education-based solutions to prevent radicalisation and extremism.
Educational approaches provide social mainstreaming alternatives for vulnerable young people who are at risk of recruitment into violent groups.
My name is Jonah and I just want to make a case for our extreme togetherness.
All things being equal, we are constantly being hunted by our shared humanity to such an extent that we are now confronted with self-inflicted prejudices and deep rooted biases. Our minds have falsely been wired to be vulnerable to manipulation of self-serving warlords laying claim to their allegiance to an unholy war, it is appalling. So now, night comes hot and morning comes so cold – the crashes, the bombs, gun boom. Blood everywhere, even on the holy pulpit. The mood of the world is now filthy because insurgents are dramatically raising the stakes; blood is spilling. Everywhere, every corner has become ominously sullen. Our minds have been extremely separated from our shared humanity!
My name is Jonah and I just want to make a case for our extreme togetherness.
So here is my point exactly. We have a new type of conflict, the first truly cross-border war – for want of a better term – is beginning to envelope the entire globe. Unlike the old type of warfare, this one is a war without defined battlefields or recognized combatants, where mufti is even not the uniform. We have on our hands a situation in which the middle ground has been obliterated. The world is one vast battlefield and everyone is a potential casualty. The subject of this war is our minds, the battle is for the ownership of our minds, it is about the territorial protection of our mind, it is about who runs the show of our mind!
My name is Jonah and I just want to make a case for our extreme togetherness.
What is wrong with our mind? Nothing! Or maybe, something! But it is a goldmine, a powerful tool to make or break the world. It is a prerequisite tool for imaginative exercise. It defines the existence or extinction of humanity in us. It supplies our sense of feelings and it is the root of good or evil. And with all this, our mind is shaped on what it is fed with, based on what information it is exposed to, and based on how we engage it. So our mind defines us and tells to which block to belong.
My name is Jonah and I just want to make a case for our extreme togetherness.
I’m longing for your mind, I want to rewire your mind but I will not remake it. I will leave it as it is and feed your mind with what is right. I will feed your mind with informative education and make you see reasons for our continued togetherness. So this is what I do, I use education to disrupt the radicalization chain. So before you go far along the chain, I want to offer you an alternative!
My name is Jonah and I just want to make a case for our extreme togetherness.
I believe in the potency of education to disrupt radicalization process through the rewiring of mind and break the chain of gang and extreme violence as they relate to young people. This provides social mainstreaming alternatives for vulnerable young people at risk of recruitment into violent groups.
My name is Jonah and I just want to make a case for our extreme togetherness!
