The Information Officer of the United States of America Embassy in Nigeria, Sean Mclntosh, urged Nigerians to support the government in fighting Boko Haram, just as Fredrick Douglas fought and stood up for the right of African Americans.
Mclntosh spoke at the Black History Month Celebration on Wednesday in Abuja in a film review of the life of Fredrick Douglass, an African American Social Reformer, in a programme titled: “From slavery to leadership.”
He said: “If you read the heroic act of Douglass, you will see the need why Nigerians and Africans at large need to live in unity and fight against Boko Haram.
“If one man can come out to fight for the happiness of all, without knowing anyone, then I see no reason why people can’t live and understand each other.”
Mclntosh noted that people’s ways of life should present dignity, love and passion “to see your brothers grow”.
He added: “Our ways of life should not be different from Douglass’s because he fought with love and passion.
“With dignity, he stood for what was right and today, there is freedom all over.”
Mclntosh said Douglass became a remarkable orator that numerous persons doubted if he had ever been a slave.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports said that Douglass was born in slavery as Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey near Easton in Talbot County, Maryland.
As a young boy, he was sent to Baltimore to be a house servant, where he learned to read and write, and later fought for the emancipation of slavery.
In 1838, Douglas escaped from slavery and went to New York City and in 1841 he addressed a convention of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society in Nantucket.
He so greatly impressed the group that they immediately employed him as an agent.
During the Civil War he assisted in the recruiting of coloured men for the 54th and 55th Massachusetts Regiments and consistently argued for the emancipation of slaves.
After the war he was active in securing and protecting the rights of the freemen.
NAN.
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