The Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, the Most Rev. Matthew Kukah, also yesterday said Nigeria‘s unity could not be compromised. He urged citizens to contribute to its greatness.
Rev. Kukah spoke in Abuja at a national dialogue organised by the Savannah Centre for Diplomacy, Democracy and Development.
The theme of the session, the third in the series of national dialogue by the centre, was “Nigeria`s unity and national integration: Threats and opportunities for national development”.
Rev. Kukah, who reacted to agitations by groups, said politics was strengthened by people having the capacity to express themselves.
He said that in spite of feelings in parts of the country, unity remained the focus and that it was the responsibility of all to make Nigeria great, the envy of other nations.
“We cannot recover territory from Boko Haram only to surrender it to others; we are Nigeria and Nigeria will continue to remain.
“This country belongs to all of us and I think it is important for us to understand that while the protester must have his voice, the one in power must also have his voice.
“We are before the red sea; this may be Nigeria`s best moment. It is time for us to realise our collective vulnerability,” he said.
The Bishop added that everyone existed in the country was because there was a Nigeria, adding that while Nigeria could exist without us, we could not exist without the country.
He said that the challenge to all should be how to make Nigeria great, stressing that all stakeholders should work to ensure that.
He expressed regrets that the patriotism of most public office holders ended as soon as they were out of office.
“Ministers become so patriotic when they are in office and I have seen them come down; no sooner had they lost their positions than their patriotism ended,’’ he said.
Kukah said “the political class has no time to reflect; we fumble and fumble through problems and we just think that the problems will go away’’.
Prof. Ibrahim Gambari, founder of the centre and Nigeria’s former Permanent Representative at the United Nations (UN), said that even the United States was still designing a perfect union.
According to him, the idea is to keep working at it so that there will be less dissatisfaction and more gratification, and an assurance that we are moving in the right direction.
Gambari said that though personalities were important because they made a difference, leadership was key, and the Nigerian project was a project of all.
He explained that the objective of the dialogue was to come up with realistic implementable ideas that would develop the country.
He said that the centre was poised to be part of national discourse, adding that it did not have to always agree on issues raised.
Gambari advised that consensus was not built by creating enemies, but by engaging people with divergent views.
Gambari said “from experience, parties to a conflict and disagreement stand their ground best when they are standing within a common ground.”
He was optimistic that panels at the session would come up with a robust deliberation with actionable and viable recommendation for the country‘s policy makers.
