Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has blamed the country’s woes on the manipulation by political leaders of ethnicity and religion to hold on to power, saying that only a detrabilised Nigerian can promote unity in the country.
Speaking in Kaduna, yesterday, as a guest of honour at the 2021 Lecture of the Arewa Media and Development Forum, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate in the 2019 general election condemned the use of religion and ethnicity to divide the citizenry.
Atiku said: “I don’t see any Nigerian as Igbo, Hausa or Yoruba. When I see you, I see a Nigerian and I expect the best from you; that is why I don’t select where I should marry. I married women from the diverse backgrounds because I don’t look at their backgrounds; I only see them as wonderful Nigerian women.”
Besides, the Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Udom Emmanuel, who was the Guest Speaker at the occasion held at the Arewa House and attended by prominent Northern leaders, highlighted the reason the present Nigeria leadership should avoid using religion and ethnicity to destabilise the country.
Also, Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello, has advised youth to conduct a proper check on the candidates that would be contesting the nation’s number one seat in 2023, as he accused the political elite of fuelling insecurity.
According to the governor, to overcome the current issues bedeviling the country, Nigerians need to vote for those who have good track records.
The governor, who stated this in Abuja, yesterday, during a national security summit, organised by the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), blamed the political elite for the current state of insecurity.
“We can get insecurity and education right. Whoever is going to be President in 2023, we must go into records before we select.
“There are responsibilities that lie on our shoulders. The security managers are the politicians, the political class, not the service chiefs nor the President,” he said.
TO bridge the leadership gap in the country, literary icon, Prof. Femi Osofisan, has stressed the need to take formation of leaders seriously.
Speaking at the 40th anniversary of Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) in Abuja, yesterday, he expressed concern over the present formation of leadership, which he said comprised the elite that have been at the corridors of power since Independence.
He identified other challenges as lack of trust, stressing that “we also have an attitude of arrogance, cultural issues and preference of foreign literary works to the detriment our indigenous works.”
