The Acting President, Professor Yemi
Osinbajo, has stated that Nigerian leaders
are never divided by ethnicity or religion
when it comes to stealing the country’s
resources.
Osinbajo said this on Wednesday, in Abuja,
at a seminar organized by the Institute for
Security Studies. The seminar, which had
“Unity in Diversity” as its theme, addressed
the raging claims of marginalization by
certain sections of the country.
According to the Acting President, claims of
marginalization are principally driven by
selfish interests, which have given rise to
false narratives. One of such false narratives,
he said, is that a single ethnic or religious
group bears greater responsibility for the
country’s challenges or that one is superior
to the other. In challenging the version of
events, the Acting President said his
experience is that Nigerian leaders are very
united when it comes to looting the
treasury.
“I have found and I have repeated this
several times that whenever you look at a
charge sheet, that is a sheet where people
have been charged with an offense,
especially those who have served one way
or the other in the Federal Government of
Nigeria; charged with stealing or corruption,
you will never find one ethnic group alone
represented. You will always find an equal
representation of the ethnic groups. There
is complete unity in this business of stealing.
You will also not find one religious group,
you will find that there is nobody arguing
about religion when it comes to these
matters,” he said.
To support his claim, he added that the
country has triumphed only in instances
where attention was not paid to religious or
ethnic differences. For example, said the
Acting President, there is no focus on
religion and ethnicity when the country’s
football teams take to the field. The collective
goal, he explained, is the outcome of the
match. He advised Nigerians to extend that
attitude to every aspect of national life.
“I want to say that that is exactly where we
should be as a nation today. We should just
be telling ourselves – just win, just score; it
does not matter where you are from so long
as you are in government or wherever you
are, just win for this nation and we do not
want to ask questions of where you are
from,” he counselled.
Professor Osinbajo also challenged the view
that countries cobbled together, like Nigeria
was, are doomed to fail, describing holders
of the view, especially those describing the
country as a “mere geographical
expression” as pseudo-intellectuals.
“Those who say so do not know that even
the expression, ‘mere geographical
expression”, used in relation to a country
was not first used in relation to Nigeria. As a
matter of the fact, it was the German
statesman Klemens von Metternich, who
used this same expression for Italy. He
simply summed up Italy as a mere
geographical expression exactly a century
before Nigeria was born.
“Italy is still a mere geographical expression,
but still a nation. So, we must not be misled
by those in some pseudo-intellectual way
suggest to us that the mere fact that we did
not deliberately, one day, hold a conference
to come together means that we should not
or cannot stay together. Indeed, we can,” he
argued.
He equally contended that most countries of
the world came together by some accident
of history or forced to be together, adding
that the wise ones among such have
decided to remain united.
The Acting President warned that it is a false
assumption that an ethnic group is better
taken care of if one of its members runs the
government, saying the country’s
experience has shown that no ethnic group
has necessarily fared better socio-
economically because one of its own is in
power.
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