DON'T TAKE OUR UNITY FOR GRANTED SAID ATIKU.
On the occasion of
the country’s centenary, former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar,
yesterday, called on Nigerians not to take the continued unity of the country
for granted even as he cautioned against distractions that could impede the
future prosperity of the nation.
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Atiku, in his centenary message to the country, urged
Nigerians to look above the structural fragments that divide the nation, saying
that the victims of the ineptitude leadership were neither divided by
ethnicity, tribe nor religion.
He lamented that 40 years after the civil war, the country’s
leaders could still be playing ethnic and religious games to gain power.
He said: ”As we mark the centenary celebration of the
amalgamation of the Lagos colony with the Northern and Southern Protectorates
by the British Colonial occupier forming one country, Nigerians need to pat
each other on the back for we have truly come a long way.
However, we must
redouble our efforts towards building a stronger and more united Nigeria rather
than concentrating energies on division or breakup.
”The recent clamour by some of Nigeria’s leaders for a
renegotiation of the continued being of Nigeria are dishonest and an
unnecessary distraction from the future that we can build. Such leaders need to
concentrate their efforts on tackling the challenges ranging from lack of
security to addressing poverty and unemployment through infrastructural
investments.
“The victims of structural ineptitude are not distinguished
on the basis of their ethnicity, tribe, religion or region. It is also a truism
that both the perpetrators and their victims are Nigerians, and secession will not fix these woes.
Rather, if our leaders devoted more energy to dealing with
these basic challenges facing the ordinary Nigerians, ethnic and religious
differences would have sunk to the background as people are able to focus on opportunities
available to them.
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