Nigerians: Come out and speak for Nigeria

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Since yesterday, key actors have been in Sheraton Hotel at the invitation of Professor Ibrahim Gambari’s Savannah Centre debating the theme of national integration, devolution of powers and the calls for restructuring. This is the third in a series of policy monitoring dialogues bringing together various stakeholders on a platform that allows for open and frank discussion on key national issues for the generation of ideas that can help in forging stronger national integration, unity and a vibrant economy. The first addressed the crisis in the economy while the second addressed the security challenges facing the country. 

The current dialogue is addressing concerns and claims on the marginalization by different sections of the country and making recommendations for strengthening national cohesion and integration. Questions are being asked on what people mean when they repeatedly ask for the ‘restructuring’ of Nigeria. The hope is that by talking and sharing ideas, Nigerians can put the idea of ‘secession’ to rest and, instead, propose strategies for burying the ghost of the civil 
war. This morning, the debate would continue at the Sheraton, as former Vice President Atiku Abubakar leads discussions on his favourite topic – restructuring Nigeria. 

Bishop Mathew Kukah was the lead speaker on yesterday’s session devoted to the politicization on religion and ethnicity in Nigeria. He started on the note that what might be happening is the opposite – the religionisation and ethnisation of politics. He recalled the earlier debate in the Ahmadu Bello University of the 1980s led by Dr. Bala Usman on the manipulation of religion and stressed that what we have been witnessing is various elite groups seeking their selfish interests at the expense of the people. The core problem, he argued is that the Nigerian State is collapsing and cannot collect taxes from citizens, cannot provide social services, cannot provide security and is paving way for criminal gangs to be the key players. As the State recedes, the vacated spaces are being occupied by criminal gangs and the army that is trying to fight them. The APC and PDP are currently ruling eight States while the criminals and soldiers are fighting it out in the 28 States remaining.