State governors have resolved, from their meeting with Acting President Yemi Osinbajo on the recent tension in the country as a result of several agit
State governors have resolved, from their meeting with Acting President Yemi Osinbajo on the recent tension in the country as a result of several agitations, not to allow Nigeria to break up, stating that those fanning the embers of war were wasting their time. The Oyo State Governor, Abiola, Ajimobi, who spoke on behalf of the other governors, said the governors and other stakeholders have agreed that despite the agitations being witnessed in parts of the country, Nigeria must not break.
He said the governors resolved that the unity of the country is sacrosanct, non-negotiable and they all have agreed to work together to educate people.
Ajimobi added, “Any time you have agitation, usually, there will be poverty; there will be unemployment; there will be hardship. So, we should address fundamentally these areas of poverty, unemployment and hardship. Nigerians are by nature a united people; nobody cares whether you are from the north, south or the east.”
The governor also warned against the consequences of war, urging Nigerians to learn from Rwanda and Somalia.
Speaking with State House correspondents at the end of a meeting on Wednesday at the Presidential Villa, Osinbajo stated that any Nigerians expecting the country to break was only wasting his time.
“The message is for Nigerians to work more together and collaborate. We have more to gain when we are united. We cannot afford to break, and anybody that is thinking of that, is wasting his time, and we will not allow it, not in this country. All of us are unanimous about that,” he added.
Osinbajo had appealed to the governors to always be ready to speak up against statements from individuals or groups capable of setting the nation on fire. He said they must be ready to protect the nation and its democracy from the hands of those who were bent on dividing the country.
“We must not allow the careless use of words, careless expressions that may degenerate into crisis. We are a people that like to talk and we express ourselves loudly but it is expected for us to recognise that it is those same words that can cause conflagration; that can unfortunately lead to calamity.
“We must be careful on how we express ourselves. What we have seen in recent times is that some of the languages (words) used have tended to degenerate badly and I think that we must begin to speak up against some of these things and ensure that we protect our democracy and our nation from the hands of rhetoric that may just divide us.
Osinbajo also mentioned the issue of herdsmen and farmers crisis, especially the way that some of these had resulted in flashpoints across the country, as one of the issues raised at the previous meetings. He said it was important that lasting and satisfactory solutions were found to the problems identified. Describing the problems as multidimensional, Osinbajo said state governors had important roles to play especially because they were in control of their territories.
He stated, “We must resist the temptation to play politics especially with matters of security, but to reach for simplistic narratives that might be originally expedient and satisfying but false, deceiving and sometimes unhealthy to proper understanding of the issues.”
Governors, who attended the meeting, included Rauf Aregbesola (Osun); Abiola Ajimobi (Oyo); Dave Umahi (Ebonyi); Aminu Tambuwal (Sokoto); Abdullahi Ganduje (Kano); Nyesom Wike (Rivers); Godwin Obaseki (Edo) as well as governors from Borno, Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom, Adamawa, Benue, Plateau, Kogi, Lagos, Kebbi, Ondo, Imo, Taraba and Anambra states among others.
