Nigeria’s Situation Extremely Worrisome, On Brink Of National Disaster — Anyaoku

Going by the level of insecurity and unprecedented diminution of
national unity, Nigeria is on the brink of a national disaster,
former Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku
has said.

Anyaoku’s alarm came just about 24 hours after former President
Olusegun Obasanjo had also warned that the nation was on the edge
of the precipice.

Speaking in Abuja on Tuesday at the Justice Dadi Onyeama Book
launch, Anyaoku’s noted that pointers of the nation approaching a
brink included daily incidences of kidnappings and killings of
human beings, violence by Fulani herdsmen, worsening level of
poverty and controversies that greeted the proposed RUGA policy of
the federal government.

Anyaoku particularly warned that the country will be worse off
if President Muhammadu Buhari, members of the National Assembly,
state governors and all political elites continued to deny a
situation he described as “extremely worrisome.”

Noting instances of unsuccessful diverse federations which came
to grief and Yugoslavia and Sudan, Anyaoku in launching the book
titled, Dadi, The Man, The Legend, stressed that the nation’s
leaders must be willing to learn from history.

“For no objective observer, including those in the Government,
can deny that the current state of affairs in our country is
extremely worrisome.

“We see an unprecedented diminution of national unity; we see an
unprecedented level of insecurity of life and property with
kidnappings and killings of human beings occurring virtually every
day in many parts of the country including the seemingly unchecked
violence by Fulani herdsmen which has spawned fractious
controversies over the proposed RUGA policy by the Federal
Government.

“For the sake of peace and integrity of the country, the RUGA
policy must be handled with circumspection and strictly in
accordance with our extant constitution’s provisions on land
tenure. And we also see that all these unwholesome developments are
accompanied by a worsening level of poverty that is leading to
Nigeria fast becoming the poverty capital of the world.

“I call on our President, the members of the National Assembly,
the Governors, and indeed on all our political elites not to
continue to live in denial of the seriousness of these glaring
facts which, if not effectively addressed, are bound to push the
country over the brink of a national disaster,” Anyaoku said.

As a way out of the quagmire, Anyaoku said the nation must have
an inclusive central government where the component units have a
sense of unity and patriotism.

This he said should take the form of adequate delegation of
powers to the federating units to enable them to handle their
internal security and significant aspects of their socio-economic
development.

In spite of the diverse nature of the country, he expressed the
belief that the country’s national entity should be sustained and
nourished.

In learning from history, he described Canada and India as
successful diverse federations that the nation could learn
from.

“I believe that the current travails of Nigeria will be more
effectively tackled if the country’s diversity is managed with a
structure of governance that draws not only from the lessons of
successful diverse federations but more importantly, from Nigeria’s
own past happier experience during its immediate post-independence
years,” Anyaoku added.

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