Akwa Ibom Governor Udom Emmanuel has harped on the need for Nigerians to embrace equity and justice as a backdrop to sustain the country’s unity in diversity.
Emmanuel who spoke Thursday on the topic: Unity in diversity at a public lecture organized by the Arewa Media Interactive and Development Forum, Arewa House, Kaduna said ”We must ensure that there is equity and justice and that no part of the country is made to feel less of itself as this will definitely not augur well for our union.’
The governor who was a key speaker noted ”Several reasons have been adduced for this state of affairs. Many individuals and groups have taken umbrage at the over-centralization of power at the centre, perceived marginalization of some parts of the country.
”These are sore points that give fillip to the agitations for balance and equity in the country. We cannot afford to run a country where some parts of our country feel marginalised or left out of the scheme of things as this is a potent threat to the unity of the country.
“Hence many have said we need a more equitable union, where no one feels short changed or short-circuited or left behind. A country where everyone seeks livelihood anywhere and anywhere without fear. We need a nation as a melting pot, where the identities remain but the flavours blend, where, as the first Stanza of our former National Anthem so emotionally enjoined ‘though tribe and tongue may differ, in brotherhood we stand.”
He singled out elite as people who put wedge of hatred among pone another, saying ”The problem, for most part, is the elite. The Nigerian elite stoke the hate between one part and another. And we are seeing them in the debate over VAT, restructuring, zoning, herdsmen and these are not too difficult issues to resolve.
”VAT calls for fairness between us. To restructure is for all to feel like the brother’s keeper. It ensures we all eat from the same pot and no one goes home hungry or deprived. Zoning means abiding by a formula that works for all.
”It only takes the people to sit at a table and cross-fertilize ideas. You win some, I win some, and all of us become winners. There will be no zero -sum game. The part will become the sum and the sum will be like the part. The equation will be complete.
”As former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill once said,’It is better to jaw jaw than to war war.’ But if one set must take everything, we will always remember our languages, our tribes, the aroma of our mother’s soup. Hate then replaces love, and handshakes will move beyond elbows.
”The American democratic experiment that we romanticize today was not perfect, it took the elites, the founding fathers to correct the ills and gave the world a Constitution that is based on true federalism that has been copied and replicated all over the world.”
Speaking on American Exceptionalism, Udom queried ”Why can’t we create our own Nigerian Exceptionalism where emphasis would be placed on talents over geography, where the ethnicity, tribal affiliations, religious differences, all the elements of our diversity or homogeneity are subsumed within and around the ambit of the larger national interest.
”America has its roots in Protestantism; what is generally known as WASP, (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant). Today, however, the original defining or schematic representation has given way to a national narrative of one nation under God.
”There are Muslims today in America, Hindus, Jews, Buddhists, Confucians, Catholics and they all meld and weld in the tapestry of the American Exceptionalsim. Same can be done here, in our Nation.”
