Renowned diplomat, Emeka Anyaoku, has accused the Nigerian government and the political elite of living in denial of glaring threats in the country, urging them to admit the security challenges tormenting the masses and spare no effort in devising commensurate and enduring solution to them.
The former Secretary General of the Commonwealth went on to align with former President Olusegun Obasanjo's open letter that the security challenges, among others, stemmed from lack of proper management of the diversity of the Nigerian people.
Speaking at the launch of a book titled "Dadi, the Man, the Legend," authored by Dillibe Onyeama to honour the legal luminary, Justice Dadi Onyeama, in Abuja on Tuesday, Anyaoku pleads with the President, state governors and the National Assembly to address the issues that are “bound to push the country over the brink of a national disaster”.
He said, “Let me now come to my message to President Buhari and all members of our National Assembly. The message is two-faced: Nigeria is on the brink; and our foremost national challenge is the management of our country’s diversity.
“Every diverse federal country throughout the world achieves political stability and socio-economic development through successfully managing its national diversity. There are two common keys to this. The first is having an inclusive central government which gives the peoples of the component parts of the federation a sense of belonging that in turn underpins the sense of unity and patriotism in all the citizens.
“The second is having adequate delegation of powers to the federating units to enable them handle their internal security and significant aspects of their socio-economic development.
“However, today, Nigeria is on the brink. For no objective observer, including those in the government, can deny that the current state of affairs in our country is extremely worrisome.
“We see an unprecedented diminution of national unity; we see an unprecedented level of insecurity of life and property with kidnappings and killings of human beings occurring virtually every day in many parts of the country, including the seemingly unchecked violence by Fulani herdsmen which has spawned fractious controversies over the proposed Ruga policy by the federal government.
“For the sake of peace and integrity of the country, the Ruga policy must be handled with circumspection and strictly in accordance with our extant constitution’s provisions on land tenure. And, we see that all these unwholesome developments are accompanied by a worsening level of poverty that is leading to Nigeria fast becoming the poverty capital of the world.
“I call on our President, members of the National Assembly, governors, and, indeed, on all our political elite not to continue to live in denial of the seriousness of these glaring facts, if not effectively addressed, are bound to push the country over the brink of a national disaster.”
