Shehu Sani, Ozekhome urge FG to address inequality, injustice, others

Former lawmaker, who represented Kaduna Central Senatorial District in the Eighth National Assembly, Shehu Sani and human rights activist, Mike Ozekhome, have urged the Federal Government to address fundamental social, economic and political problems that are seriously undermining the unity and peace of the country.

The duo, who gave the charge, yesterday, in Abuja at the 25th DAAR Communication national discourse, noted that any country without fairness and equity is simply sitting on a time bomb.

Ozekhome, who insisted that Nigeria is divisible, said Nigerians needed good governance, reintegration, inclusiveness, transparency in governance and a brand new Constitution.

Sani said: “This is a government that has made all promises of restoring law and order in the country but this is the situation we have found ourselves. It is a sign that the state has created the atmosphere for people to pick up arms against it.

“No matter how we try to preserve Nigeria as an entity, any country without fairness and equity is simply on a time bomb.

“Ethnic nationality is not the problem but the problem is where people have now politicised their ethnicity whether as people or as people in a position of power to destabilise the entire country and this is something you see that comes from the top to the bottom.

“When Nigerian leaders speak in their own ethnic languages, they promote division but when they speak in English when they know there will be consequences, they promote national unity, which I see as hypocrisy.

“There is no way you can keep a country together when you have a set of leaders whose agenda and mission in power are self-reservation and favouring people from their own political class. Nigerian leaders don’t see themselves as servants but as conquerors who have conquered a territory and the resources belong to them, which can only trickle into who they like.”

Sani, who insisted that a government that has proven ineffective and failed to protect the lives and property of the people has no reason to remain in power, further said: “I come from a state in North-West of Nigeria where one cannot move a kilometre outside of the state without getting into the hands of bandits.

“Bandits have laid siege to my state and to my own part of the country. They have moved from stopping commuters, taking hostages and extortion. They have moved to become a state within a state imposing levies, collecting fines and taxes from people.

“They have also moved further to installing chiefs and imams in some of the mosques and villages within the North-West region. These are evidences or examples of a failed state, and the state has failed because the leaders have failed.”