At the 2021 National Unity Summit held on Wednesday, speakers called on Nigerians to appreciate the cultural diversity present in Nigeria so the people can stand united.
Former Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) chairman Attahiru Jega explained that unity, in a country as diverse as Nigeria, is something that was hard to achieve.
He claimed that unity in Nigeria could be “deliberately forged, nurtured and entrenched through citizenship mobilization, sensitization and education”.
“There is in present-day Nigeria, evidence of remarkable erosion of national unity and seeming whittling down if not abandonment of yesteryears lofty projects of national integration,” Mr Jega said.
“The resurgence of, and violent activism by, insurgents and irredentist militants with a clear agenda for dismemberment of Nigeria, is indicative of the sorry state of national unity. So is the increasingly indifferent and apathetic disposition of teeming youth with regards to serious national affairs, which ordinarily would require their active engagement.
Mr Jega claimed the cause of Nigeria’s disunity was because post-independent leaders campaigned for “forgetting” Nigeria’s ethnocultural diversity as opposed to “trying to understand” it.
“Indeed, many young men and women are so frustrated that they are diverting their energies to aggressive behaviour and creativity to all sorts of criminality. Some have even given up on Nigeria and are merely looking for opportunities to ‘check-out’.”
