Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, has warned that Nigeria is “drifting apart from each other” and urged for a National Unity Summit to iron out issues.
Atiku also addressed the recent meeting by Southern Governors to ban open grazing and called for a united angle between Northern and Southern Governors, in a statement titled “We Must Stop Waiting For Godot,” on Sunday.
READ: Recession: Nigeria must stop borrowing for anything other than essential needs – Atiku
What Atiku said
“It is unNigerian to terrorize your fellow citizens. Up until about a decade ago, we did not have this. It is unNigerian to abduct people. And this is undoubtedly a new menace that has low historical precedence in Nigeria.
What our present challenges, therefore, call for is not fragmentation but concentration. We must concentrate and focus our national willpower and resolve towards fighting these unNigerian tendencies.”
He called on Governors to stop waiting on Abuja to make changes, and instead convene a National Unity Summit of all Nigerian Governors to iron out the thorny issues affecting the nation’s destiny until they figure out a way to resolve them.
He added that Nigeria can not keep retreating to its regional enclaves, as too much was at stake.
“We must grow in unity. We must glow in the community. We must blow away disunity. We have no choice, considering the alternative, which is a calamity that we would not wish to return to,” he said.
The Stance of Southern Governors
Nairametrics reported last week that Governors from 17 states in Southern Nigeria had stated that Nigeria must be restructured to reflect true federalism leading to state policing.
They also called for a change in the revenue allocation formula of the nation, an end to open cattle grazing, and a review of government appointments relating to federal character, plus a national dialogue to address greater inclusiveness in existing governance arrangements.