Atiku restates need for national integration

• Seeks Upgrade Of Geo-Political Zones As Federating Units
Fourth republic vice president, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has noted that Nigeria’s unity is under severe stress, saying that statesmen must rise up to the occasion and proffer solutions that are sustainable and can endure.

He tasked the northern part of the country to educate its prodigious youth population so as to provide them with the requisite skills to be competitive in the country.
The former vice president made the observations yesterday in a paper he presented at the Late Gen.Usman Katsina Memorial Conference, held at the Umaru Musa Yar’Adua Memorial Hall, Murtala Square, Kaduna.

He said the theme of the conference, “The Challenges of National Integration and Survival of Democracy in Nigeria”, acknowledged two critical issues, stressing that national integration and the survival of Nigeria’s democracy are related and are important.

While insisting that the two issues face challenges in Nigeria today, the former vice president noted that although most Nigerians would agree with those propositions, they are “likely to have differences regarding how to achieve national integration and ensure the survival of our democracy.”

He described national integration as the process by which different components of a country, develop a sense of nationhood irrespective of their different histories and cultural values and practices, saying that such a sense of nationhood and oneness encourages a commitment by the people to the survival of the nation.

“As a country we have mightily struggled to live up to this ideal,” he stated, “we have obviously not done enough to realize national integration, and the survival of our democracy is still a work in progress. The cost to us has been enormous. We even fought a civil war to forcibly keep the country together.”

Atiku pointed out that since the various amalgamations that created the country as an entity, “different segments of Nigeria’s population have, at different times and sometimes at the same time, expressed feelings of marginalization, oppressed, threatened, or even targeted for elimination.”

He noted that various responses to those agitations, including creation of states from the earlier three (and later four) regions to the current 36 states; a civil war, and other military operations in different parts of the country at different times; federal character principle; among others, have not worked adequately to enhance national integration and the sustenance of our democracy.

“If anything, our unity has been fragile, our democracy unstable, and our people more aggrieved by their state in the federation. We have always responded with a suspicion of the “other” in trying to deal with these challenges to our integration and democratic survival,” he said.