The Acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, has
revealed his wishes for Nigeria, saying the people if united can build a new
nation.
Osinbajo spoke as Special Guest of Honour at the graduation
of the 2017 class of Senior Course 39 of the Armed Forces Command & Staff
College, Jaji.
His words: “We can build a new nation; a new nation built on
trust, consensus and love for one another and love for our country is possible.
“A nation where the rulers do not steal the commonwealth,
where every Nigerian is safe to live and work, where the State takes
responsibility for the security of each and every Nigerian, where the State
knows every Nigerian by name and can find and locate each one of us.
“A Nigeria where the Igbo or Ijaw man can live peacefully in
Sokoto, and the Fulani man can live peacefully in the Niger Delta.”
The Acting President insisted that the elite were largely to
be blamed for the festering negative narratives.
“I would like to emphasize the fact that this was
essentially an elite phenomenon, unity and disunity are promoted by the elite
which the vast majority of the Nigerian people are only later conscripted.
“While we must remain irrevocably committed to freedom of
expression and the tenets of a free press, we must draw the line between
freedom that conduces to healthy democracy and that which threatens and endangers
the entire democratic enterprise . It is an important balance, that we must
strike. Failure in any way will be tragic”, he said.
He also observed that the problem was exacerbated by the
influence of the internet and hate media emphasizing that “today a great deal
of the threats facing Nigeria are being nurtured and cultivated in the vast
spaces of the Internet.
“The rumblings of secession, the dangerous quit ultimatums
to ethnic groups, the radio stations and blogs that spew divisive speech and
exploit our fault lines; all of these are now to be found online.
“The battle is not just to defeat the terrorists, the
greater battle is to defeat the ideology and mindset that feeds the madness and
to cut off its oxygen, money and publicity.
“The truth is that our nation and national unity is worth
preserving and protecting. We are the preeminent power in Africa today in terms
of population, size of our markets , natural resources and economy.
“We are a factor in the geopolitics of the world, no one can
ignore a nation state that is home to one in every four black persons. Smaller
is weaker not stronger today.”
Osinbajo charged the nation to rise above unproductive
ethnic and religious sentiments.
He added, “We must develop the emotional intelligence
required to cope and adapt in a swiftly and constantly changing world.
“We must adopt a global mindset, that seeks to learn from
the experiences of other countries, far and near, so that we do not waste
valuable time repeating mistakes that we should have learned from and learned
to avoid”.
By Wale Odunsi
