The Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, has said calls around the division of Nigeria by groups in the country are driven by ignorance and emotions rather than knowledge of what makes a nation.
He spoke in Abuja at the National Unity Summit 2021 organised by the National Prosperity Movement (NPM), with the theme ‘Nigeria: The imperative of Unity’.
The Sultan was represented by the Emir of Keffi, Alhaji Shehu Yamusa III, said:
Chairman, Nigeria Governors’ Forum and Governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi, was the special guest of honour; while a former chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Attahiru Jega, delivered the keynote address.
Fayemi debunked the insinuation that the Nigerian Amalgamation of 1914 was a mistake, urging critics to note that most countries in the world were products of involuntary or compelled mergers of peoples who decided to stay together in unity.
Giving his keynote address, Jega said the problems threatening the unity of Nigeria could no longer be ignored.
He said the military had worked more for national integration with their policies; whereas the civilian governments did not go beyond sloganeering.
He said the implementation of federal character in employment into federal service and the quota system of admissions into tertiary institutions bequeathed by the military to address imbalances had created ethnoreligious and regional tensions, and animosities.
