Nigeria at crossroads, says Atiku

former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar,
said on Monday that Nigeria was at a
crossroads but that the road to continued
mediocrity was not an option if the
country must attain the desired greatness.
He made the assertion at the showcase
session of Nigerian Bar Association
Annual General Conference in Calabar,
the Cross River State capital.
Mr. Abubakar noted that “the path we are
currently threading, which is marked by
empty promises, avarice, greed and
corruption cannot sustain nation building
and development.”
He said that “nations are built one brick at
a time, one person at a time, people
helping people” adding “when people
come together to help, rather than hurt
each other, the people become the force
from which a future is built, and a nation
grows.”
The former vice president emphasised
that the path to Nigeria’s greatness
required honest, experienced and
incorruptible leadership, adding that the
envisaged greatness would need a
sustained focus on economic
development, critical improvements of
infrastructure and uncompromised
security system nationwide.
According to him, as the nation charts its
next 100-year course, the desired
greatness in the main, would demand
putting the dignity, hopes and dreams of
Nigerians, especially her youth, first.
Mr. Abubakar, however, assured that “if
we put our house in order and decoy
from this road to nowhere, the next 100
years may yet be the century of Nigeria’s
greatness.”
He advocated the establishment of an
enduring democratic platform with a
sustainable legitimacy, and for such
platform to possess credible internal
capacity to produce visionary leaders who
will be committed to the public purpose
and whose leadership will be informed by
the common good and sustained by the
popular will of the citizens.
He suggested “the reorientation of the
psyche and minds of Nigerians to trust
their leaders and love their country, the
restoration of community spirit in which
everyone is their brother’s keeper and
enthronement of a new regime where the
allegiance of citizens should be first to the
motherland.”
Mr. Abubakar called for the retooling of
the structure and quality of government
institutions and the resuscitation of the
productive capacities of the state to
guarantee social and economic welfare of
every citizen. According to him, the
guarantee should uphold freedom, ensure
dignity, and promote fairness and equity
of the citizens in the way government
functions.
While noting that extreme poverty and
environmental damage constituted
security issues because they continued to
take away human dignity, self esteem and
a general sense of hope, the former vice
president called for the provision of
adequate security for all Nigerians.
According to him, “food scarcity, high
youth unemployment, resentment,
disillusionment and hopelessness are
sentiments and emotions on which
insecurity thrives.”
And to overcome these challenges, he
proposed comprehensive security, where
every citizen must not only be conscious
of the collective national interest, but
must be willing and happy to defend it on
behalf of all.
In tandem with pre-existing differences in
social values, aspirations and
preferences, he suggested the adoption of
a system of true federalism that would
guarantee the autonomy of states to
develop at their own paces.
To guarantee equity and justice among
citizens, the former Vice President
proposed progressive reformations and
adjudication of the nation’s laws and
statutes.
Mr. Abubakar proposed a social policy
that would give opportunities to the
vulnerable and disadvantaged members
of the society to live useful and
satisfactory lives.