Ekiti State Governor, Kayode Fayemi, has said that various political, economic and social problems afflicting Nigeria can be overcome if leaders and followers share a unity of purpose to get them solved. Gov. Fayemi, who said a well -structured dialogue remains a major pathway to peace and progress, said there was nothing heroic in dying for a cause that dialogue and negotiations can resolve. Speaking on Tuesday as the guest lecturer at the combined ninth and 10th anniversary Zik lecture series held at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State, Gov. Fayemi admonished Nigerians to bury their differences in order to achieve a greater and fulfilled country.
The governor who is also the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), stressed the need to develop a democratic system in Nigeria that meets the expectations of Nigerians and restore peoples’ trust in the government they voted into office Gov. Fayemi whose lecture was entitled: “Nation-building: Between restructuring and autonomy,” pointed out that Nigerians must learn to manage their differences and do so in order to achieve the goal of a better and more perfect union. According to him, “the indestructibility of Nigeria, as envisaged by Zik is indeed, best assured when the majority of Nigerians are emotionally connected to Nigeria because of what Nigeria is able to do for them and in the quality of life it provides for its citizens.” He paid glowing tributes to the late political sage, Dr. Azikiwe, who had served as the premier of the old Eastern Region, former governor general of Nigeria and first president of post-independent Nigeria in whose memory the lecture is held annually on November 16, his birthday, to interrogate issues affecting Nigeria, Africa and the world at large and to proffer solutions to key problems confronting humanity.
“In his time, Nnamdi Azikiwe scored many firsts that can only be recalled with awe and admiration. He was among the pioneering university-educated Africans who sojourned to the United States in their quest for knowledge and selfimprovement. “He was also a pioneering sportsman, public intellectual, journalist, newspaper proprietor – with 12 daily titles in his stable at one point in time, owner of a panNigeria athletic club, and author, Gov. Fayemi added.
While arguing for the preservation of Nigeria’s unity amidst the agitation of groups like MASSOB and IPOB, the governor enjoined Nigerians to learn from the experiences of a smaller African country, South Sudan, which declared independence from Sudan in 2011, only for a fresh civil war to break out within the new nation two years after achieving self-determination which led to the death of about 400, 000 people with over 4 million others displaced. Contending further that the Nigerian situation no matter how dire it looks is not irredeemable, Gov. Fayemi advocated the need to strengthen those pillars that unite Nigerians together, rather than fanning the embers of disunity and disintegration which he said negates the ideals of nationalists like Dr. Azikiwe.
He said: “I am convinced that the problems that we are called upon to address and redress in building a better country are not beyond our grasp to tackle. “With good faith and a generous dose of goodwill, we can as we have done in various occasions in our history summon that Nigerian genius to build on the things we have successfully erected together. “We must strive to do so in the spirit of the kinds of noble values and principles that inflamed the spirit of a youthful Azikiwe to enrol at Lincoln University in a quest to discover the innate goodness in the human species with a view to building a better and freer world.