The President of African Development Bank Group, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, has said the reason Nigeria is nosediving into destruction is because the Buhari administration has failed to manage the nation's diversity effectively.
The former Minister of Agriculture under the Jonathan administration, made the statement at the Convocation Lecture of American University of Nigeria, Yola, Adamawa State.
In his lecture titled; “Building a New Nigeria: Imperatives for Shared Prosperity,” Adesina said Nigeria can address the agitations by listening, understanding, removing prejudices and allowing open, national dialogues, without preconditions, but with one goal by building one cohesive, united, fair, just and equitable nation for all, not for a few or for any section of the nation or religion.
Using the Singaporean system as an example, Adesina said; “Nigeria must learn from this experience and forge a new way of engaging among its diverse ethnic groups and religions. Nigeria must start managing its diversity for prosperity.
“We must drive for national cohesion, not ethnic nationalities. We must address the fundamental reasons for agitations, by listening, understanding, removing prejudices, and allowing for open, national dialogues, without preconditions, but with one goal: build one cohesive, united, fair, just and equitable nation for all, not for a few or for any section of the nation or religion.
“A nation, unified by a sense of common wealth, not a collage of ethnic nationalism. A nation driven my meritocracy, not ethnocracy, religiocracy or aristocracy.
“One of the things that Singapore did well was to have four national languages: English, Malay, Mandarin and Tamil. Nigeria needs to put in place the compulsory teaching of its major languages in schools, from primary through universities, to ensure multilingualism, cross-cultural understanding, and to build a strong socio-cultural capital that unifies.
“The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) was a very good idea: it allowed graduates from tertiary institutions to have one year of national service, largely (ideally) outside of their places of origin.
“The real test, however, of “national service” is that it often revealed the lack of diversity. After one year of service the NYSC graduates are often not able to gain employment in governments where they served, simply because they are not indigenes of those states. That in itself, is an irony!
“The young graduates are strangers in their own country. A country they pledged to serve. Opportunity is denied just because they were not born in those states! Even if they were born in those states, they are told to return to the states of their origin. Yet, their origin is Nigeria, not their states!
“In Nigeria, regardless of how long you have resided in any place, you cannot run for political offices in those states or locations, just because you were not born there. State governments, therefore, largely reflect nativism not residency, which further sends a message to non-indigenes that they do not belong.
“Over time, this has created greater insularism, splintering, a lack of inclusiveness, the promotion of ethnic and religious chauvinism, instead of promoting national cohesion, trust and inclusiveness. This needs to change.
“Governments must be open to representation based on nationality not on ethnicity, to build a society of mutual trust, where diversity is well managed,” he added.