Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo,
has charged religious bodies and other relevant stakeholders in the project
Nigeria to leverage on their influence to purge divisive groups and their
actions from the country.
He also reassured every Nigerian
not to panic but to live freely in any part of the country without fear of
molestation.
The assurance was coming on the
heel of growing tension in the country, barely 24 hour to the expiration of the
October 1 quit notice issued by the coalition of Arewa youth groups.
Osinbajo, who was speaking at the
public lecture to mark the 57th independence anniversary of Nigeria organised
by the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) in Abuja,
reiterated the government’s resolve to achieving a just and equitable society.
Represented by the Minister of
Mine and Steel, Kayode Fayemi, the VP explained that in a society like Nigeria,
there was bound to be differences, “therefore, we should build on those things
that bind us together.”
His words: “Without a doubt we
are marking our independence anniversary this year during period of challenges
on our unity as a country. In recent time the federal government had to take
far reaching measure to address potential threat on the well being of our
republic.
“Nigeria is a vastly plural
society with the population of close to 200 million creating and enterprising
people consisting over 250 distinct ethnic nationalities and spread over and
extensive land mark.
“We have challenges but there is
nothing compare with love that the God had blessed us with, I believe our
challenges are not insurmountable on the road to building a strong and united
Federal Republic. We have all that it takes to turn our diversity to strength
and our large population to be seeing as an opportunity rather than a problem.
“Managing our diversity and
differences and our large population to make it work to our advantage as a
country is a really challenge before us. We can follow the example of others
with similar composition and achieve sustainable peace and development in the
midst of our diversity.
“Even in personal relationship,
at the family and community levels, there is bound to be diversity of opinions.
There is no way we can avoid having differences as a country, so, the fact that
we have differences is not the main problem, regardless of how these
differences are reported in the traditional and social media.
“This is why our administration
will continue to enlarge the spaces for dialogue as we believe it is only by
continuously engaging that we can deepen mutual trust and understanding among
the different tribes and religions in our country.
“Stakeholder groups such as the
supreme council for Islamic affairs have a responsibility of leveraging your
influence to continue to condemn the divisive directorates and actions in the
country. In our religious gathering as the voices of reason and truth, we must
influence our children to see our country’s diversity.
“We have to reinforce that the
ties that bind us together are more than those that seek to tear us apart. Our
goal is to achieve a just and equitable society, where every individual can
pursue and achieve his or her own God given potentials regardless of either
age, ethnicity , religion, physical-ability , heath status, economic
circumstances among others.
“We continue to assure every
Nigerian that we are committed to upholding the peace and unity of our great
country and that every Nigerian can continue to live freely in any part of this
country without fear or hindrance.”
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Osinbajo, let it start with you.
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