The National Economic Council (NEC) Thursday affirmed Nigeria’s unity, declaring that staying as one remains the best option for components of the country.
The Council made the declaration at its virtual meeting presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the State House in Abuja.
Minister of Information and Culture, Mr Lai Mohammed, who briefed State House correspondents after the meeting, said NEC stressed the need to address the problem of agitations by some groups across the country. He said the council observed that such agitations were common with countries with huge and diverse population like Nigeria.
“We were told that a country like India has about 156 active separatist groups,” he said, adding “that is important not to allow minority the mainstream of opinion and cow constitutional authority.”
The minister said the affirmation by the NEC followed a presentation he made on the outcome of the Town Hall meeting held on April 8 , 2021, in Kaduna.
He said that the Kaduna Town Hall meeting, themed, “Setting Benchmark for Enhanced Security and National Unity,’’ was prompted largely by the various security challenges in the country ranging from herders/farmers crisis to insurgency to banditry to ethno-religious crisis.
“It appeared that recently these challenges, which the government has been doing its best to overcome, have been triggering calls for secession and calls for separation.
“So, we felt it was time we come together and try and get a national consensus on the need to remain one indivisible country,” he said.
The minister said he also briefed the council on the importance of the 18 town hall meetings that had been held in various parts of Nigeria.
He said that the Kaduna Town Hall meeting was unique because panelists were drawn from the academia, civil society and the private sector “so that government can be fully briefed as to the thinking of various strata of the society on the issue of national security and national unity.”
He said the council directed states to hold consultations and dialogue on the issues affecting the country and report back on the next NEC meeting for a concrete decision to be taken.
He said the state-by-state consultations would ensure that the people have a great stake on the unity of Nigeria, and would enable the country to gather a much wider perspective of the general populace on the issues.
