Vice President Yemi Osinbajo (SAN) as well as other eminent Nigerians have suggested how Nigeria can overcome its current security challenges.
The Vice President and other dignitaries spoke on Thursday during the 2020 LEADERSHIP Conference and Awards ceremony at the International Conference Centre (ICC), Abuja.
The Sultan of Sokoto, HRH Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, state governors, national and international business leaders were also among the leaders who spoke at the conference.
Osinbajo, who was the guest speaker at the event, blamed the elite for the prevailing insecurity in various parts of the nation.
He also said that the elite are fuelling insecurity in the country by promoting ethnicity and regionalism.
The theme of the LEADERSHIP Conference and Awards ceremony was titled: “National and Regional Insecurity: The Role of Political And Non-Political Actors In Stabilisation And Consensus Building.”
Osinbajo said, “Some of the elite can’t come to consensus when it comes to tackling insecurity. Most of the elite who are promoting ethnic agenda, depend on dubious activities in playing regional and ethnic cards.
“The elite use that to acquire more for themselves. The chief weakness we have is the human one. Our political, economic and religious elite are socially irresponsible either by selfish interest or lack of self-awareness and unable to build the social and political consensus upon which a just and orderly society can start.
“And because the government must form some consensus, the elite paint them dubious. They promote tribal and religious faultlines for legitimacy.
“And I don’t speak of ethnic or religious marginalisation…. I speak of the division between the have not, they have no hope and the have who seem to have it all.
“So, the attacks received on law and order are themselves symptomatic and they are driven by emerging critics of the fabric of order itself.
“These critics are manifesting as insurrection and insurgency along various aspects of our identity.”
Osinbajo, who cautioned young Nigerians agitating for break up of the country, warned that secession would only lead Nigeria to extinction.
He said, “We must be prepared to tell our constituency the truth, even if it means hurting our political fortunes or our popularity.
“We must be able to say it to our young men and women who for example say that secession is the only way out. We must be able to say to them that that is a way of extinction, not development.”
In his remarks, the Sultan of Sokoto, HRH Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, who was the chairman of the occasion, said Nigerians have to accept their ethic and religious diversity.
He said God did not make a mistake bringing Nigerians together, saying that the citizens must accept other religious faiths.
The revered royal father said, “One wonders if we are to go our one million ways, how do we survive. But God Almighty can never make a mistake, so whatever He has done, that is His will and it must be obeyed. So bringing us together as Nigerians is not a mistake and that is what God wants.
“So, we have to accept our religious beliefs as good Christians, as good Muslims, as bad Christians, as bad Muslims, we all know we are from one source, one creator.”
The Sultan also used the occasion to counsel those trying to fan the embers of hatred through religion, saying that they would not succeed in their infamous action.
He said, “Those trying to fan the embers of hatred, division and whatever through religion will definitely fail because we’ll not succumb to their atrocities. We will not give in and will continue to work for the betterment of our great country Nigeria.
“We must rise up together as one people to face this challenge of insecurity, no one person can do it alone.”
The royal father said the issue of insecurity must not be left to the commander-in-chief, chief of defence staff, service chiefs and heads of security agencies.
He said, “We must rise up to see the issue of insecurity as our own personal problem, we can all and we must contribute to the challenges of insecurity in this country and if we do that in the next couple of days, weeks, months, years we’ll be sleeping with our eyes closed.
