Nigeria’s
unity is sacrosanct and non-negotiable, and persons or groups mulling its
division are wasting their time, governors of the 36 states, declared, yesterday.
Governor
Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State, who spoke to journalists, on behalf of his
colleagues, after the meeting convened by Acting President Yemi Osinbajo, as
part of ongoing consultations to resolve ethnic tensions in parts of the
country, said Nigeria has more to gain when it is united.
“We cannot
afford to break, and anybody thinking of that is wasting his time,” he declared
against the backdrop of separatist agitations by the Indigenous Peoples of
Biafra (IPOB) and the three-month eviction notice by Arewa youths to Igbo to
leave the north by October 1.
“We have all
agreed to work together to educate the people. Any time you have agitation,
usually there will be poverty, there will be unemployment, there will be
hardship, and so we should address fundamentally these areas of poverty,
unemployment and hardship.
“Nigerians
are by nature a united people, nobody cares whether you are from the north,
south or the east.
“We cannot
play with the unity of this country. The consensus has been that there must be
unity. The message is for Nigerians to work more together and collaborate. We
have more to gain when we are united… All of us are unanimous about that.”
Ajumobi
appealed to the media to concentrate on stories that unite rather than
sensationalism.
He said: “If
we fight, everybody will lose. Have you ever seen a country that fought civil
war and remain the same? We don’t want to be another Rwanda and Somalia and all
these places. The government is doing its best (to ensure Nigeria remain a
united entity).”
Earlier,
Prof. Osinbajo had challenged leaders, especially governors, to speak more
forcefully to counter divisive speeches or any kind of war mongering. He said
failure to do so could be disastrous.
“If the
leaders do not speak up forcefully enough, if for any reason matters are
allowed to degenerate, not only does leadership lose their legitimacy, they run
the risk of things going completely out control,” he said in his opening
remark, before the meeting, attended by 22 governors and four deputies, went
into closed door, at the State House Conference Centre, Abuja.
Her appealed
to governors to resist the temptation to play politics, especially with matters
of security, and also reminded them of their roles in instilling peace and
protecting lives and properties in their areas.
He said they
were critical in the whole process as none of the agreements reached with the
other stakeholders could hold without their endorsement.
The acting
president noted that even though some of agitations were fair, there was need
for the government to draw lines between orderliness and disorderliness and
bring down dissenting voices and hate speeches that could degenerate to crises.
He reiterated
the resolutions of former consultations that upheld the indivisibility of the
country and its sovereignty in line with the 1999 constitution.
“We must not
allow the careless use of words, careless expressions that may degenerate into
crisis. We are a people that like to talk and we express ourselves loudly, but
it is expected for us to recognise that it is those same words that can cause
conflagration that can unfortunately lead to calamity.
“We must be
careful of how we express ourselves. What we have seen in recent times is that
some of the languages used have tended to degenerate badly and I think that we
must begin to speak up against some of these things and ensure that we protect
our democracy and our nation from the hands of rhetoric that may just divide
us.
“From all of
the consultations we have had, we agreed that Nigeria’s unity should not be
taken for granted; no one wants to see us go down the path of bloodshed or war.
“We also
agreed on the permanency of the Nigerian constitution, that the 1999
constitution is the basis for our unity. It is the basis for the legal contract
that exists between all of us. Our meetings were frank and open, as I hope this
will be. We were able to agree on most of the critical issues that were
discussed and in most cases, changed perceptions that may have been long
embedded in their minds.
“We also
agreed that under no circumstances should we condone hateful speeches, and that
government should take all steps necessary to bring to book all those who
preach violence, in particular the kind of expressions of dissent that can
cause violence.
“We also
agreed that we need to do more to engage our youths productively, create some
jobs, multiply the economic opportunities available. More importantly, we
agreed on the need for leaders to speak out forcefully to counter divisive
speech or any kind of warmongering.
“We agreed
that leaders at all levels speak out forcefully against any kind of
divisiveness or divisive speech. And we expect that our political leaders will
do so without waiting to be prompted. All of those who spoke felt that
sometimes, when leaders do not speak up promptly, it always results in
degeneration, no matter what the problem may be.
“This
applied to both the statement made by the young people in the South-east as
well as the youths in the Northern states. We discovered there was a need for
much greater resonance in the way that these things are done and for the
leaders to speak up more forcefully. We believe that if the leaders do not
speak up forcefully enough, if for any reason matters are allowed to
degenerate, not only does leadership lose their legitimacy, they run the risk
of things going completely out control.”
He commended
the leaders from the North and South for their openness at the consultations
stating that they were extremely responsible even in their criticisms of what
they felt were issues that should have been better handled.
“I think
that their criticisms were fair and balanced. I must commend them for their
sense of responsibility and their leadership.
“Going back
to some of what was said, some of the issues that came up, and I hope that we
will discuss in greater details, are the issues around the herdsmen and farmers
crisis, especially the way that some of these have resulted in flash point
across the country.
“We started
those discussions during the consultations we had, and I believe that we will
be able to deepen those discussions in our meeting and possibly hold a more
expanded meeting where we will be able to take a closer look at it. It is
absolutely important that we are able to make lasting and satisfactory
solutions to these problems.
“Of course,
the problems are multi-dimensional, but the states have a very important role
to play, especially because they are in control of land in their territories.
“I must say
that I trust that all of us appreciate the need to show greater unity of
purpose and the determination to work together to resolve various challenges
that arise on a constant basis for the benefit of all Nigerians regardless of
party affiliations.
“We must
resist the temptation to play politics especially with matters of security, but
to reach for simplistic narratives that might be originally expedient and
satisfying but false, deceiving and sometimes unhealthy to proper understanding
of the issues.”
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