Senate President Ahmad Lawan, has said the country is struggling to move forward because Nigerians are not cooperating.
Lawan who made the statement in Abuja on Tuesday while delivering a lecture at the National Defence College Course 29 Programme, said Nigerians are suspicious of almost everything, and allow politics, ethnic and religious sentiments to becloud their sense of judgment, and whack their faith in the country.
“Almost every issue you bring in Nigeria would rather have or would be given either political, ethnic, geo-political or religious coloration," he said in a statement.
He however, implore Nigerians to prioritize national interest over personal interests, if at all they want the country to overcome its many challenges, and make headway.
He said, “The national interest must override any other interest because it’s the interest of the majority of the people of the country. If we do that, chances are that we’ll always get it right."
Meanwhile, the row between Fulani and some states in the Southwest and East, is pushing the country more to the brink of collapse.
Professor Umar Labdo of Yusuf Maitama Sule University, Kano, said recent events unfolding in the Southern part of the country, indicates a gang up against the Fulani ethnicity in the region particularly in the Southwest where herdsmen are no longer welcomed.
Although it has been clarified that the recent expulsion notice given to Fulani by the Ondo State government, is specifically targeted at herders hiding in the State's forest and committing various crimes, Labdo insists that the expulsion affects all Fulani regardless of what the government says.
"Fulani are Fulani, whether they are herders or they are settled Fulani. Fulani is Fulani. So we are talking about a whole community being stereotyped as criminals," Labdo said in a comment.
Labdo also warned that those issuing threats and attacks against Fulani should remember that their people are also scattered across the North including remote areas were no one would even know that they were wiped out.
He said, "you cannot expel others and you live in peace."