The lingering insecurity in the country has been linked to government's
insensitivity to playing down on policies that promote ethnicity.
This was the kernel of discussions at the 13th session of the Emmanuel Onyechere Osigwe Anyiam-Osigwe with the theme "Synthesis for Nationhood: Ethnic Policy and National Integration: From Indigenes to Citizens" which held in Lagos yesterday.
In the keynote address, former President of Sri Lanka, Mrs Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, stated that a country with multi-ethnic nationalities such as Nigeria needs leaders who will accommodate minorities through selfless policies for a breakthrough.
According to Kumaratunga who ruled Sri Lanka between 1994 and 2005, her country, which fell under the category of multi-ethnic nations of the war, was able to break the barrier of acrimony through genuine commitment to render service without fair or favour.
She attributed the current inequalities in the Nigerian structure to the lapses deliberately left behind by Britain, noting that Nigeria is just one out of many nations colonised by Britain that is currently being ravaged by violence.
She, therefore, enjoined Nigerian leaders to dwell more on policies that promote national identity, formulate people-based policies while efforts should also be made to preach peace from across the country.
She also noted that true federalism would do a lot to assuage the nation's insecurity if government could see reason in embracing such.
Corroborating his position, the Sultan of Shongai, Dr Haliru Ndanusa Yahaya, who stood in for the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa'ad Abubakar, said Nigeria is being consumed by violence and insecurity as a result of leadership insincerity and crass inequalities that place a certain section of the country above the other.
He berated the quota system being used in the Nigerian system where certain positions are deliberately ceded to some sections even when other qualified people from other zones are deprived.
He noted with regrets that Nigeria is a nation where advice and solutions proffered to problems are not taken serious by people in authority but enjoined government to take a cue from Sri Lanka and forge ahead.
He bemoaned the situation in the Northern part of the country where Islamic scholars do not have opportunity to key in into the current employment criteria simply because they are not versed or knowledgeable in English Language.
"I have a close person who is a graduate in Arabic. This fresh graduate is jobless and there is no hope for him to get a job simply because he cannot speak English Lanuage," he said.
Many dignitaries graced the occasion, including former Head of the Interim National Government (ING), Chief Ernest Shonekan, former Chief of General Staff, Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe, former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, who represented former President Ibrahim Babangida, and others.
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