The Imperative of Unity”, where a former chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, also berated civilian administrations in the management of Nigeria’s unity in diversity and claimed that the military did better.
In the same vein, the Sultan of Sokoto, His Eminence, Muhammad Saad Abubakar, who equally spoke at the occasion, said most of the problems confronting Nigeria, especially, the threat to her unity could be traced to the inability of the the leaders to effectively deploy the country’s diversity for development.
In his key note address, Jega said, “The attention paid to the question of national unity and integration by successive military regimes has not been matched by successive civilian administrations.
“Except for sloganeering in the Third Republic, when Shehu Shagari as NPN’s presidential candidate, and subsequently as president, popularised the slogan of “One Nation, One Destiny”, subsequent civilian administrations, especially, since 1999 seemed to have, more or less, presided over the undermining if not destruction of the bases and foundations of national unity and integration in Nigeria.
“To be sure, national unity can only be predicated on mutual trust and understanding, reciprocal friendly/brotherly/sisterly relations, as well as shared interests, values and aspirations. National unity would only best be promoted through tolerance and accommodation of each other’s differences, opinions, ethnic, religious and communal or even regional identities.
“At the core of national unity are non-discriminatory relations whether at the personal or official levels. The sad thing in that in contemporary Nigeria, all these are in dire short supply.”
Jega lamented that, currently, the major threats to national unity, as well as national security could be summarised as follows: “Negative mobilisation of ethno-religious and other primordial identities, especially in contestations for power in electoral politics .
“Hate speeches targeted at perceived ‘others’ in an ‘us’ versus ‘them’ categorisations and reckless peddling of misinformation and fake news to demonise perceived opponents. Giving primacy to ‘indigenes’ over ‘citizenship’ rights in state and local governance and dangerous if not genocidal narratives emanating from perennial farmer-herder conflicts,” he said.
The Sultan, Abubakar, represented by the Emir of Keffi, who called on the federal government to find ways to manage the various diversity in the Nigeria’s unity insisted that most of the problems confronting Nigeria could be traced to the inability of the the leaders to manage her diversity.
He said national unity was one of the most effective prevention of internal conflicts that could drain the resources of the nation and derail its progress, adding that Nigeria’s unity had been called to question in recent times with threats of disintegration.
Diversity is therefore a fortune and like most fortunes, they need to be guarded and managed very well to realise the benefits. Rather than complain about our diversity, we should strive to master the skills of the management of this diversity. Some of the problems for which we blame our diversity are actually problems arising from our failure to manage that diversity,” he said.
Chairman of the occasion, Major General Ibrahim Haruna, lamented that despite the various styles and tactics from 1999, corruption, insecurity and intolerance were still inherent in the system.
