Politically, the amalgamation of the Southern and Northern protectorates in 1914 brought together peoples of diverse historical and cultural backgrounds into one political space to chart a new future.
Despite this obvious challenge of diversity, the commitment of the colonial government towards ensuring the unity was demonstrated in a number of policies aimed at fostering cultural,
political, social and economic ties among the various groups in the
new nation.
Thus, from the time of amalgamation of the two protectorates with the colony of Lagos, till the period of regional administrations, Nigeria became committed to a united federation. Its commitment arose from its acceptance of federalism as a particular kind of function arrangement between diverse communities for living together and
working together nationally whilst preserving a measure of separately
entity.
The quantum of unification and the quality of unity achieved were obvious. Education, solid infrastructures, gainful employment, social welfare programmes and sound heath care delivery were successfully accomplished by our leaders of blessed memory, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, and the Sardauna of Sokoto who fought for the country’s independence.
Where were those legacies today? Why are things falling apart today?
Why is it that public funds spent for successful running of regional
governments by our founding fathers were sourced internally without
any external borrowings?
Why is it that despite whooping amount of money being borrowed externally by the present day governments, lives
of citizens are still miserable? Where did we get it wrong?
Are our problems, including insecurity and socio economic duoldrums defied
solutions?
What is more, there have been greater
challenges of security in recent times than at any point in time in our history, thus rendering our political stability fragile, democratic institutions and processes fluid, and our economy
debilitated.
Kudos must be given to His Excellency, the Oyo State Governor, Engineer Oluwaseyi Makinde, for his boldness, consistency and sincerity of purpose in his comments by calling on governments, political leaders and every citizen of the country to have the courage and honesty to get to the root causes of our current state of insecurity, underpinned by criminality, insurgency, especially terrorism by these armed herdsmen.
Hear him, ‘’urgent and immediate steps must be taken to consciously respond to current threats by architectonically designing and building a security system which would create a stable and relatively peaceful environment, conducive for national development.
“We must accept the reality that while it is necessary to create unity in diversity, we must identify and respect our differences, which is diversity in unity’’.
“If we are honest with ourselves, as citizens, we would agree that all is not well with our nation and that the values we once held dearly had gone into oblivion. Where are values like honesty, integrity, and sincerity of purpose.
Hence, the persistent call by Governor Makinde on politicians to eschew primordial sentiments but be more pragmatic on finding solutions to myriads of problems confronting the country.
He did not stop at that, but further stated that national growth and development depend largely on the good
sense of justice, moral worth and responsibility, conscientiousness, devotion to duty, selflessness, probity and honesty exhibited by the leaders and the led.
The Governor went further, ‘’it is assumed that a nation’s value system is sacred and ould extend beyond that nation’s boundaries. All nations are supposed to be proud of their value systems, just as a person is proud of his or her upbringing and character and would try to impress that behaviour and beliefs on others.
“Basic values are traditional and
historic, reflecting aspects of the experience that each nation went through since its inception as a national unity. Politicians must close ranks, logically brainstorm, and arriving at an in-depth and coherent understanding of the contending state-building issues in the country which he identified as the fear of the predominance of one state over another,, over-concentration of powers, lack of consensus politics and government based on a community of interests, absence of truly ntegrative national political parties, non establishment of the principle of public accountability for office holders; and inequitable system of revenue allocation.
These issues, he noted, are not new but immutably metamorphosed and taken different and violent character in today’s national live, adding that the ultimate consequences are that they still pose serious threats to peace and national security.
‘As constant variables in our national consciousness, Makinde asserted that there should be genuine and concerted efforts towards addressing these challenges to peace and security, adding that Nigeria’s ethnic, sectional and religious diversities ought to serve as source of national unity, cohesion and integration but unfortunately this has over the years constituted serious threat to peace, security and national development because the political elites have always tended to manipulate these identities for their parochial interests’’.
