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Nigeria is drifting —Shagari
NKIRU OKEKE, Enugu and
FRIDAY OBOH, Sokoto
W ITHIN eight days, another
eminent Nigerian, former President Shehu Shagari, yesterday returned a damning
verdict on the state of the nation and warned that the country was drifting.
The former president’s assessment came
even as the dust raised by the altercation between President Olusegun Obasanjo
and the National Chairman of his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Chief
Audu Ogbeh over the former’s handling of certain national issues, including the
Anambra crisis, was yet to settle.
But Ikemba Nnewi Dim
Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu said at a separate forum, that a national dialogue
as officially proposed was the panacea to strife in Nigeria, pointing out that
such fresh position underlined the Biafra struggle between 1967 and 1970 as "a
victorious struggle."
Speaking at the opening of a National
Conference on Peaceful Co-existence, Pluralism and Nation-building,
organised by the Usmanu dan Fodio University, Sokoto, Alhaji Shagari said
prevailing evidence showed that Nigeria was marching backwards.
Shagari, who was chairman of the event’s
opening ceremony, said tension and strife were rife in the country, pointing out
that Nigeria appeared to be taking backward steps into the pre-colonial era when
numerous independent enclaves were in a constant state of friction.
The former president said the country’s
endemic contradictions are presently "rapidly overwhelming" Nigerians’ sense of
accommodation to new heights.
Chaos, he warned, awaits the country if
the tendency remained untamed.
Said he: "It appears as if the cultural,
religious, ethnic and other differences which had always been with us are now
rapidly overwhelming our usual sense of accommodation into new dimension, which
if not checked with renewed determination and vigour, would lead us into
confusion and chaos. God forbids."
He charged participants at the conference
to examine the Nigerian situation critically and reminded everyone of their
responsibilities in the task of building a great nation where no one is
oppressed.
Conference chairman and Sultan of
Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammadu Maccido, assured the participants, among whom were
academics, Muslims and Christian leaders and politicians, that traditional
institutions would continue to make their utmost contributions towards the
maintenance of peace and stability in the country.
"In this regard, we shall join hands with
different stakeholders such as the government, security agencies and the society
at large to make Nigeria a more peaceful and united polity," he stated.
Sultan
Maccido said the root cause of conflicts in Nigeria is poverty and ignorance and
urged the authorities to deal decisively with trouble-makers.
During the two-day conference, papers will
be delivered by university teachers, Muslim and Christian leaders, on topical
issues such as "Conflicts in Nigeria"; "Muslim-Christian Relations";
"Education: The Role of Literary Artst"; "Alternative Frameworks for Peaceful
Co-existence and "The role of security
organisations in peaceful co-existence and nation-building."
Dim Ojukwu
said at a book presentation in Enugu yesterday that he had no regrets over the
role he played during the Civil War when he led the breakaway Republic of Biafra
out of Nigeria on grounds of injustice and lack of fairness to Easterners.
The book being presented titled The
Nigerian-Biafran Bureaucrat was written by Godwin Onyegbula.
Ojukwu: "I thank God that we have reached
the stage where we agree that there should be a National Dialogue; no matter
whatever you said at that conference, the aim will remain to make Nigeria a
better place for all of us.
"The happiest thing about my own life is
that I have lived to witness the indication of all we did. We did it not for
Okeke or Okafor, we did it for the happier and better Nigeria.
"With the number of people claiming to be
Biafrans today, it is clear that ours was a victorious struggle. We survived, we
are proud of our survival, if I have a chance again, I will choose the same
team. They were the best of our generation, they were the best of my generation,
I was only part of that generation," he said.
Ojukwu, who was the presidential candidate
of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in the last election, described the
present generation as "a pregnant generation."
Said he: "When I think of a great
colleague Wole Soyinka who said that our generation was a wasted generation, for
the first time in my life, I will correct a Nobel Laureate, this is not a wasted
generation. This is the pregnant generation, we are still pregnant, the whole
country is anxiously waiting for the delivery.
"I will take this opportunity to tell you
that after all said and done, our generation will be given birth to a new
Nigeria and this is the generation that will give the birth," he added.
In his remark, the author of the book,
Onyegbula stated that Ndigbo were great believers in Nigeria, until they
were obliged to seek their destiny and security elsewhere during the War.
Said he: "Those who tried to bring them
back to the Nigerian family were, themselves, initially not more committed
Nigerians. The shock of the Igbo exit, and its expected consequences for all,
forced them to become Nigerian enthusiasts. Neither side could, therefore, truly
claim innocence or higher patriotism, though the Igbo became the sacrificial
lamb.
"One great lesson of this is that
democracy is not just a rule of the majority. A majority which cannot be changed
by reason, and a minority which remains permanent in spite of the merits of its
case, cannot co-exist peacefully together in a state. That polity is doomed to
remain permanently unstable; or worse, disintegrate."
Those who graced the occasion included
Governor Dr. Chimaroke Nnamani of Enugu State, former governor of Old Anambra
State, Chief Christian Onoh and members of Ohanaeze Ndigbo in Enugu
State.
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