Nigeria’s unity in dilemma, says Atiku Abubakar

                             

• CAN, GKS urge tolerance, decry hate speeches
• Alaafin calls for restructuring

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar yesterday disclosed that the call for restructuring has placed the country’s unity in a dilemma. He spoke in Kano when he paid a condolence visit to Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje over the death of the Danmasanin Kano, Yusuf Maitama Sule.

Atiku disclosed that the demise of Maitama has further dIMMED the hope of a united Nigeria, which is currently being threatened. Extolling the virtues of the late former Nigeria’s Permanent Representative at the United Nations (UN), Atiku described him as a unifying factor, whom would be greatly missed.

“The late Danmasani Kano epitomised the unity and oneness of Nigeria. It is painful that we lost him at this time when he would have played a key role in the restoration and normalisation of the country’s unity.”

Similarly, the Chairman of the northern chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Rev. Yakubu Pam urged a peaceful coexistence irrespective of religion or ethnic diversity.

Also, the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi has called on the Federal Government to begin the process of restructuring the country to correct alleged lopsidedness.

He spoke in Ibadan yesterday at the launch of a biography Samuel Ladoke Akintola in the eyes of history, which was written by a former member of the House of Representatives, Femi Kehinde.

According to him, the founding fathers operated successfully in the first republic with a true fiscal federal system, until the January 1966 coup that introduced the current unitary system of government.

The Alaafin lamented the current political arrangement, which favours the north in terms of revenue allocation, adding that while more states and council areas have been created from the region, other regions were yet to enjoy similar opportunity as federating units.

Meanwhile, Ministers of God’s Kingdom Society (GKS) have appealed to groups and individuals agitating for the country’s breakup to exercise restraint.

In a communiqué, the church’s its Publicity Secretary, Benedict Hart, he urged government and the aggrieved groups to dialogue to avoid bloodshed and save the country from reliving the experiences of the last civil war.

The statement reads: “The resort to emotionalism and mutual recriminations were the ingredients that led to the outbreak of hostilities between Nigerian and secessionist forces in the destructive 30-month civil war, which are the country’s most weighty calamity since self-rule.”

“Since there can be no perfect system or arrangement, both the leaders and the led must be prepared to follow after the things, which make for peace and the things wherewith one may edify another until God’s Kingdom would take over the affairs of the whole world.”