Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has said the unity of Nigeria requires the hard work of ensuring justice, equity and fairness for all the segments of the society.
According to his spokesman, Laolu Akande, Osinbajo made this declaration yesterday while delivering the Convocation Lecture of the Sokoto State University in Sokoto.
The Vice President, who paid a courtesy visit to the Sultan of Sokoto, also warned against overlooking fears of ethnic marginalisation or discrimination on account of ethnicity and religion in the country.
He said: “Political, especially ethnic leaders and religious leaders must do the difficult work of educating their publics about the need to live together. It is the elites, leaders that will do the onerous job of ensuring unity in our communities.”
According to him, “unity is not just a slogan or even merely a good idea. It has manifest expression in our communities where Nigerians from diverse backgrounds are comingling, trading, partnering, inter-marrying and blending in various ways.
“We live in a complex web of multi-layered social, cultural, economic, and political synergies playing out in every sector of our individual and national lives. Despite the scale of the challenges facing us, unravelling this web of commonality as proposed by enthusiasts of disintegration is a cure that is worse than the disease.
“This is why we must understand that even though managing diversity can be politically and administratively onerous, diversity itself is an economic strength and harnessing it properly is hugely rewarding.”
Osinbajo added that if properly harnessed, a country’s diversity could ensure lasting prosperity for all.
He said: “It is a matter of interest that the most prosperous economies in the world are typically diverse places. Because the true wealth of nations in the 21st century is human capital, societies that set out to attract and retain the most diverse pool of skilled human resources are ordained to prevail in the race for prosperity.”
