Enough is Enough, VP Osinbajo Warns Agitators

Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo on Sunday challenged Nigerians to abate the growing separatist agitations and debates about the unity of Nigeria, tasking them to rather channel their energies and resources towards building a great nation.

Osinbajo made this remark when he represented President Muhammadu Buhari at a feast in commemoration of the Eid-El Kabir celebration in the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

He said it was time citizens stopped promoting talks on the division of Nigeria and concentrate on how Nigeria will attain the level God has designed it to be.

According to him, “Our energies and resources shouldn’t be spent again on the debate about division. Our manifest destiny is to be a great nation, not to be a nation where we are talking about division. We must focus our time, our energies and our resources on being that great nation that God has called us to be,” he said.

He further described Nigeria as a great nation, blessed with human and natural resources which he said some other nations of the world had to embark on a long journey to see.

According to him, the country is so blessed to the extent that people hold the opinion that one of every four or five black persons in the world must be a Nigerian, as he went spiritual, pointing out that God conceived Nigeria as a nation blessed with the diversity of resources and ideas.

He insisted that it was time to put paid to protracted controversies which characterise Nigeria’s experience, insisting that Nigeria is a country ordained by God to remain eternally united.

He emphasised that Nigeria was so rich both in human and natural resources to the extent that God conceived it to be a honey pot to other African nations which he said would have to depend on it to survive.

Arguing that he was confident that Nigeria would never disintegrate, Osinbajo said God designed the country to be a pre-eminent black nation that is rich in culture, commerce and technology.

“I am one of those who are extremely confident that our nation will remain united because I am convinced that God’s plans and purpose for Nigeria are that we would be the preeminent black nation in the world.

“This is a nation that will show forth in culture, in technology and in commerce, God’s investment in the black race. This is why today, some people say out of four blacks, some say five, one must be a Nigerian. That is not a mean attainment at all.

“That nation that God has in mind is a diverse nation, diverse in resources, in ideas, in opinions – kind of nation that we have, where there is an argument about something everywhere. Before you get tired of that lone argument, another one arises and before you finish with that one, there is yet another one.

“This is the type of country that God has ordained where we have a diversity of opinions, diversity of ideas. People are saying their own things here and there. But, He has also planned that this country will remain together and that we’ll be a nation that is gifted just as we have the oil, the gas, and the most arable land space than most continents.

“This is a country that has all of what other countries will travel and spend money looking for the sort of resources that we have.

“All of the tourism resources that we have, people will travel everywhere looking for it.

It is a nation of men and women so creative and prosperous, that we will feed the entire continent and create opportunities for the world,” he stated.

The vice-president disclosed that the president was unavoidably absent at the event because he had to celebrate this year’s Eid-El Kabir in his Daura country home which he said he had not visited in the last one year.

Reflecting on the essence of Sallah and its application to Nigeria today, Osinbajo challenged Nigerians to cultivate the spirit of the sacrifice made by Abraham when he willingly prepared to sacrifice his only son, Isaac.

Explaining that Abraham expressed his willingness to make that sacrifice because he considered it a necessity to fulfil his own destiny, the vice-president said, even so, all Nigerians, irrespective of their religious and ethnic leanings, must realise the necessity to make sacrifices that will help the country attain its own destiny.

“Mr. President is unable to attend because he is celebrating Sallah at home in Daura. He has not been in Daura for over a year now. So, this is an important home going for him.  The significance of this celebration was the willingness of Abraham to make the great sacrifice of possibly the dearest thing to him, his son Isaac.

“Obviously…it was a willingness to make a great sacrifice and Abraham was able to make that sacrifice. And he made it in order to be able to fulfil his own destiny and the destiny of his people.

“The message today is that our nation’s elite, Muslims, Christians and all ethnicities must recognise that we also must make sacrifices, the sacrifices that are necessary to attain the destiny that God has brought unto our people. All the different ethnic groups are important in that arrangement. On every ethnicity, incredible minds, brilliant and creative people doing all manner of things,” he stated.

He submitted that Nigeria’s current travail is an indication that like a woman in labour, the time of its breakthrough is at hand.

 

Southern Leaders Unveil five-Point Agenda for Restructuring

 

Meanwhile, the Southern Leaders of Thought (SLT) has unveiled a five-point agenda for restructuring Nigeria in line with the principles and tenets of what it calls true federalism, which it argues, is key to ensuring the country’s survival against the forces of division and conflict inherent in its heterogeneous nature.

The SLT, a forum of eminent Nigerians, also rejected the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) and demanded a new constitution that would derive its authority, legitimacy and validity from the people rather than a decree of the military.

These were contained in a 22-page document obtained by THISDAY from the SLT Secretariat in Lagos at the weekend, in which it accused the National Assembly of making itself part of the problems standing in the way of the restructuring of the country by seeking to amend the 1999 Constitution.

The document signed by Prof. Benjamin Nwabueze, on behalf of other members of the group, specifically outlines a five-point agenda that seeks restoration of true federalism; restructuring of the territorial structures of Nigeria; instituting fiscal federalism; removal of factors impairing true federalism; and a new constitution to be adopted by the people at a referendum.

The group comprises former Secretary-General of Commonwealth of Nations, Chief Emeka Anyaoku; Chieftain of Afenifere, Chief Ayo Adebanjo; Convener of Yoruba Assembly, Gen. Alani Akinrinade; former governor of Cross Rivers; Mr. Donald Duke; former governor of Akwa-Ibom, Obong Victor Attah; and Chairman of the National Democratic Coalition NADECO, Rear Admiral Ndubusi Kanu (rtd).