Remarks made by the
Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, at the Institute for Security Studies
Seminar Themed: Unity in Diversity, On August 2, 2017.
PROTOCOL
Let me say how honoured
I am first to share this platform today with General Yakubu Gowon who is
rightly described as a living symbol of Nigerian unity. But I believe that his
greatness lies in his policy of ‘no victor no vanquished’ when he began the
process of healing a nation, bruised, damaged and embittered by a 3-year civil
war.
There is no question at
all that great leadership comes from some sort of self-sacrifice, great
leadership comes from some sort of compassion. I want to thank General Yakubu
Gowon for playing that role at a crucial moment in our history.
I am glad to see that he
is here today, again to advise that we must not repeat the errors of the past.
I must also commend the Institute of Security Studies for providing this
important platform for reflection on the subject of the corporate existence of
Nigeria and its diversities.
It is easy to take for
granted the work that thought leaders such as the distinguished faculty here
do. But we must remind ourselves that often the difference between tragedies of
human conflict, hate and disunity is what is said and done or what is not said
and done by those charged with thinking and planning for society in crucial
times.
I believe it is the
bounding duty of institutes like this to dispassionately interpret and apply
sociological circumstances and especially history to present the choices and
alternative pathways for our nation and its people.
For example, let us just
take history; reading and hearing history is a much different experience from
being a part of history. Both have their advantages and drawbacks.
The witnesses of the
horrors of war will not wish it on their worst enemies, even recalling it may
bring back the trauma of that period. The mental and physical scars of war are
sometimes so deep that rational thoughts on the subject is impinged.
On the other hand, those
who only read or heard history may have the advantage of approaching life
without the bitterness and burdens of history, but they are often so far
removed that they tend to minimise or even dismiss the ramifications of
history.
My wife turned 50 last
month and I had to say to her that any one of her age was born in the year the
civil war began and that such persons including those who are under 40 are
probably largely responsible for many of the inflammatory statements that we
are hearing today stoking up war.
As you can imagine, I
endangered my dinner that evening! But I think that it is true that the farther
away one is from the horrors and deprivations of war, the less impact it has on
one’s thoughts, one’s motivations and one’s worldview.
We must not allow dangerous
amnesia that leads nations unwittingly to the fatal repetition of tragic
errors.
Permit me to share a few
thoughts, some of which emerged from my interactions with the thought leaders
from the Southeast and the North in the wake of secessionist threats by some
youth groups in the Southeast of Nigeria and the ultimatum issued by some youth
groups in the North.
I want to look at what I
describe as false narratives; the first false narrative is that we often say
countries formed the way ours was formed are doomed to fail. In other words,
countries formed without a deliberate agreement of people to come together are
bound to fail. This is what some people have said, that Nigeria is a mere
geographical expression and for that reason it is not likely to succeed as a
united whole.
But 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.
Most countries of the
world came together by some accident of history, one way or the other, many
were put together, many were forced together, but the wise have stayed together,
the wise have remained united.
The second false
narrative is that one particular ethnic or religious group is more responsible
for the Nigerian problems than the other, or for that matter that one is
superior to the other.
My experience is exactly
the opposite. As a matter of fact, 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 offence 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.
The truth of the matter
is that where we have won, it is where we have not paid attention to religious
or ethnic differences; our football teams - because we want to win we do not
ask ourselves questions about whether the people are from one side of the
country or from another or whether they are Moslems or Christians or whether
they do not believe in God at all.
All we are interested in
is just the score, just win. 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.
Another false narrative
is that we are better off when persons from our own ethnic group are in charge,
that we are better off. The experience of history and our experience is of
course the exact opposite of that, as a matter of fact, what history has shown
us, what the facts have shown us is that no ethnic group has necessarily been
better off either economically or even socially merely because a member of its
ethnic group was the leader of this country at that time. There is no fact to
support that whatsoever and that is how it has always been.
The fifth narrative
which I want us to look at and which I also believe is false is that those who
make discharges of marginalisation are altruistic. Those who say my ethnic
group has been marginalised, my religious group has been marginalised, that
they say so for altruistic reasons or altruistic purposes. I want to say that
is not necessarily the case. As a matter of fact, most times when people say
for instance that the Southwest has been marginalised, what they are saying is
I have been marginalised, appoint me because I am from the Southwest. That is
simply what it is.
Whenever people make
this charges of marginalisation, it is usually self-serving.
I sat with the President
once when two members of the National Assembly came to him and said that, we,
referring to states in the North have been marginalised. They went on to
explain why; they mentioned some states had no senior ministers, one of them
said “Kaduna had no senior minister, the only minister is the minister of
state”, he mentioned also “Sokoto had no senior minister even Katsina, your own
state Mr. President has no senior minister. All of the ministers are ministers
of state”. Then he mentioned another group and he said, all these people have
senior ministers, some groups in the South have senior ministers.
The President as you can
imagine reflected for a moment but before he answered, I answered. I said the
truth of the matter is that there was no consideration at the time that these
appointments were made about whether or not we wanted to appoint a senior
minister from this side or the other or from that side or the other. And that
is why you find that many including the President’s own state does not have a
senior minister.
The distinguished
members were not very happy with my contribution but the truth of the matter
is, if you look at any group, if you look at any particular situation, you can
bring up a narrative that will satisfy your own particular idea or whatever it
is that you believe. You can bring up that narrative.
A group of people came
up to me once and said “this Cabinet is full of Moslems. You are a pastor
surely you should be taking care of the Christian community”.
When we looked at the
names and religions of these people, we found out that there were two more
Christians than Moslems in the Cabinet. We now have one more Christian than
Moslems in the Cabinet.
But you see, the part of
it that even bothered me is that even the Christians, many of them as you can
imagine, and I am not even so sure whether or not, what their faith is, on both
sides, there are Moslems, I am not so sure what their faith is, there are
Christians, I am not even so sure what their faith is, some are not even
committed.
But the impression is
that, the moment a person is appointed, it is almost as if these are militants
for their religion. Many of them do not even subscribe fully to their faiths in
any way.
The sixth narrative is
that hate speech is freedom of expression and that we should allow it. I want
to say to you that that is the biggest mistake that can ever be made by any
group of people.
Every major catastrophic
human conflict has begun by hate or extremist ideology especially hate speech,
in particular every genocide in human history has been preceded by hate speech
and it is promoted by the media sometimes and promoted by public discourse. But
always hate speech precedes genocide and some of the greatest tragedies in
human history.
Our situation is worse
now with social media; instant communication of any type of news, most of it
false, most of it divisive, most of it dangerous. We must do something about
hate speech, we must control hate speech and we must insist that it is not
acceptable at public discourse of any type whether it be on radio or social
media. We cannot allow the promotion of hate speech.
The ICC, International
Criminal Court had reason to sentence several persons, owners of media to long
terms of imprisonment over the Rwandan genocide. Because many radio stations
promoted hate speech and the promotion of hate speech led to the killing of
about a million Rwandees in April of 1994.
We must refuse and we
must refuse a hearing for those who perpetuate this sorts of hate speech and
ideology.
The last narrative I
want to look at is that we are better apart than together. Of course that is
not so and I think that was so eloquently presented by the DG, DSS when he made
that quotation when he was talking about different parts of our country having
their strengths, that each one of them can survive as an individual nation but
none of them can compare to Nigeria in any way.
None of them would be
more viable, none of them can be as successful as a country such as this coming
together.
The other day at the AU,
I was listening to some of the comments from several African leaders and I was
whispering to the gentleman next to me that Rwanda is one of those countries
that is celebrated for good governance, celebrated for a few things and even
its economy.
But when you compare the
entire Rwanda economy, you will find that Lagos’ economy is six times bigger
and Lagos is just one state of out 36 states.
That is exactly what is
repeated everywhere you go, the truth of the matter is that by our sheer size,
our markets, our combined resources, this country is much more greater and its
potential is even far greater than the potential of most countries anywhere in
the world, not just in Africa.
We owe ourselves a duty
to present that narrative correctly.
What must we do? I think
first of all we must ensure and I am speaking not just to leaders but to all of
us, that we must ensure that there is respect for each other, we must respect
the views of each other.
In conversation, in
interaction, we must show respect for each other. We must respect each other’s
religions, we must respect each other’s views. The language of interaction and
exchange must be civil. We must not permit a situation where people talk
anyhow. Whether they are leaders or elders, we must not tolerate a situation
where people are allowed to speak in any manner that they desire.
There must be a way of
speaking properly, we cannot allow people to just speak in any way that they
want.
The assurance of
protection of lives and property is a very crucial one. We have no choice
especially as government to assure every Nigerian of the protection of their
lives and property. This is something the President said not just in the early
days of the government but even in more recent times. That as far as he was
concerned, the first duty of government is ensuring security of lives and
property, ensuring that each and every Nigerian is confident that wherever he
lives, he will be protected.
It is a difficult duty
and task governing a country and ensuring security and safety for a country of
170million people. But because that is the challenge that the President has
thrown, we are working on all of the agencies of government, the police, the
security services, the armed forces to ensure that not only do they understand
that that is the first and primary duty of government but that they are given
the capacity to implement that duty and to perform that duty properly.
The second is that we
must approach social justice seriously, our compact with the Nigerian people
especially leadership at all levels. Poverty is a ready recipe for all manners
of social problems.
Very many poor people
mean that there is a pool of individuals who have no stake in society and so it
is our business to ensure that people have a stake in society.
I remember during the
campaign when the President will point at the many hundreds of thousands of
people pressing their faces against the buses we were travelling in all over.
And more than once he said to me, look at the faces of these people. He said
what they expect is that by the second day when we take office, we must solve
all their problems. I said to him, that is what they expect of you not me!
(General laughter)
But I think that we have
a duty to ensure that we deal seriously with issues of poverty and social
justice. That is why for the first time in the history of this country, when we
were thinking through budgeting, we looked at the questions of social
interventions and the social investment programmes.
The total outlay for
social investment in the 2016 budget and in the current budget is N500 billion.
The largest single item in the budget. I think this is significant because we
believe that government’s duty is to ensure that there is social justice and
that we deal with poverty. The social investment programme is not a poverty
alleviation programme, no, it is an empowerment programme to ensure that those
who are poor and vulnerable are given a real chance at earning an income for
themselves.
That is really the
underlying philosophy behind our social intervention programmes.
The other point is
controlling and dealing with corruption and the impunity that attends it.
Corruption is possibly the worst evil that this country has experienced or will
experience. Because it definitely is the major reason why this country is set
back economically. There is no other single reason, the single reason is
corruption because this country has resources and not just material resources
but human resources in abundance.
The fact that someone
cornered the resources for themselves is what accounts for where we are today
economically. I think that we understand it for what it is. Many times people
find excuses of every kind to excuse corruption and it is so for religious
leaders, political leaders who look for all sorts of reasons to justify corruption.
Someone is taken to court and they say the reason he is taken to court is
because he belongs to another political party. Why don’t we ask the question,
did he steal? If he did, then he should be in court anyway, there must be
justice. That is the first question we must ask.
We should not look for
excuses for people who make our future impossible. Part of the reason other
countries of the world hold their leaders to account, and if you look at other
countries of the world today, Brazil recently sent a past leader to jail,
Thailand, Israel, any one of these countries hold their leaders to account.
They do not allow
anybody to hide under any excuse, and if you look at the reasons today why so
many are poor and have no resources, it is because some people chose to corner
all of it and we cannot afford to do it.
So it is our duty as a
people to stand against corruption and to say that it will not stand. Anyone
who is corrupt should be held to account.
And we should compel our
government to ensure that that is done.
And lastly we must
actively promote the narratives that promote unity especially young people. And
I think that it is so important that young people promote these narratives.
I was glad to hear
General Gowon speaking directly to young people and I think that when you look
at it even in the days when the civil war was fought, those who fought the
civil war like General Gowon, Odumegwu Ojukwu at the time, were all very very
young people, I believe General Gowon was about 34years at the time and Diette
Spiff who was Governor of the whole of Rivers and Bayelsa was 23 years old.
I am sure that most of
the young men who are here are probably older than that. Most of them were
under 35 years old at the time.
So the destinies of a
country lies especially and essentially our own country where 2/3 of people in
our country are young, the destiny of these country lies with the young people.
Sometimes when I hear young people being described as leaders of the future I
just wonder because the future is already here, there is no question at all
that you are the leaders today and let me just say to you young people that
nobody is going to stand aside and say now is time for young people to take
over, no.
Young people simply take over, you simply organize and you do what
you need to do to take over politically, you must be directly involved in the
politics of your country , you must be directly involved in all of those issues
in your country that will make a difference.
If people stand aside
and say one day we would be brought in, you may really need to wait for a very
long time.
We cannot turn back the
hand of the clock or correct the past, but we have the power under God to
determine what our future should be like, our nation has proved the paradox
that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, we are greater together
than apart.
Thank you very much.
Prof Yemi Osinbajo
Ag President
Federal Republic Of Nigeria
Tags
Politics