Former Minister of Transpiration, Rt. Hon. Rotimi Amaechi, at the Annual Lecture of the TheNiche publication with the theme: “Why We Stride and Slip: Leadership, Nationalism and the Nigerian Condition”, on Thursday at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, Victoria Island, Lagos, identifying ethnicity, religion, regionalism as the bane of Nigeria’s nation building, stated that national leaders emerge from the background of ethnic balancing and compromise.
Amaechi, who was the Guest Speaker, highlighted the issues of quality of national leadership and quality of nationalism in promoting national unity and development. He was of the view that Nigeria is in need of a national leader who has the ability to galvanize the entire society of the country for national course.
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The former Governor of Rivers State pointed out that ethnicity, religion and regionalism have continued to generate divisive sentiments among Nigerians.
According to him, “in most modern states, diversity is a national question.” He noted that civilized leaders work toward harmonizing the diverse entities of the country to build a united nation.
Amaechi decried that the elite use these divisive tendencies to struggle for power for their self interest.
He stated that the elite only bring up issue that is of interest to them to their ethnic groups to cause ethnic divide among citizens.
He declared: “the elite only bring up issues that is of interest to them as ethnic issues or interest to cause divisive sentiments; but when they get to power, they do that which is of interest to them.”
The former Minister maintained that the elite use ethnic sentiments just to get opportunity to acquire power. He noted that the elite eventually acquire the power not to serve the interest of the people, not even of the ethnic kinsmen but for personal aggrandizement and the friends.
Amaechi further stated that the elite are not guided by nationalism and the national question.
According to him, “when the elite cannot achieve their objective, they go home to mobilise their people and cause ethnic divisiveness. They make the believe that it is the ethnic group that is being denied access to power.”
Amaechi said that the various ethnic climes are individual ethnic groups in the country. According to him, “we are individual ethnic groups. We have specific identities – the Yoruba nation, Hausa/Fulani, the Igbo nation and the minorities.”
Amaechi reiterated that “an elite comes to power, picks his friends and enrich them.” He decried that nigeria is tormented by ethnicity and national forces.
Amaechi asserted that symbol of nationality ijn Nigeria like the flag and national anthem, do not give confidence to citizens. He stated that improving the standard of citizens is the foremost responsibility of a leader and the basis for nationalism and patriotism.
Amaechi stated that ethnicity is very pronounced in Africa because of colonial heritage. He said that the elite who were fighting for independence were not operating with nationalism but were rather engaged in power struggle through ethnic cleavages.
He reiterated that the political elite run to their ethnic clime to cause ethnic division, make their kinsmen believe that their problems are caused by leaders of other ethnic nationalities controlling the government.
Amaechi stated that Nigerian unity was built on British inheritance, not on the underlying values of the countries diversity.
He cited Nigeria’s prime Minister at independence, Sir Tafawa Balewa, who said that “Nigerian nation exists only on paper”; as well as Obafemi Awolowo, who said that “Nigeria is not a nation but a geographical expression”.
Amaechi stated that British colonialist created Nigeria on expropriation and mechanical administrative structure, which did not engender the quality leadership the country desired for national development.
He expressed concerns over how the country can fashion a coherent nation from divisive ethnic groups.
Amaechi restated that in Nigeria’s independence struggle, there was no nationalist leader. He said that only former President Olusegun Obasanjo merit the status of nationalism among all leaders in the country, both past and present, insist that Obasanjo is the only nationalist leader Nigeria has ever had.
The former Minister highlighted the firm belief of Indira Ghandi of India in leadership and nationalism, saying that there is deep ethnic nationality in India, and diverse faith. This, he said, was well managed by Ghandi in building nationalism among Indians and unifying the country with a population of over 1.5 billion people.
He also cited the Singapore experience under Lee Kuan Yu.
The former Transportation Minister, who is now a student at the Nigerian Law School, Abuja, lamented that a friend told him that “the people stealing Nigerian money are not more than 15,000”.
Amaechi further said that the Nigerian Civil War was a product of intense regional and ethnic tension from unresolved national questions that preceded independence in 1960.
He noted that the end of the civil war gave birth to a dominant new political reality in Nigeria, denoted as the “federal might”, a product of the military might, with its command structure.