Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has called for sustained dialogue and negotiation among citizens while stating that the country’s diversity is to be enjoyed and not weaponised.
Osinbajo gave the charge in Abuja Thursday night at the 10th anniversary of UFUK Dialogue Foundation, an organisation devoted to the promotion of dialogue and a culture of peaceful co-existence.
Stressing the significance of a sustained dialogue in a multicultural society as Nigeria, the vice president added that building a nationhood requires leaders across every sphere of influence to sacrifice personal interest and achieve a consensus that guarantees a win-win for all.
He maintained that a sustained and productive nationhood give access to diverse multi-ethnic strengths and provide opportunities to gain more from being together than otherwise.
He said, “It’s true that in the last two decades, we face severe threats to our mutual coexistence, violent extremism in the North-East has resulted in the destruction and unfortunate loss of lives of many, banditry and kidnappings has traumatised families.
“Just also we’ve seen secessionist agitations, especially in parts of the South and the East of Nigeria in particular, these affected and slow down economic activities in those parts of the region.”
While warning against promoting underlying issues that give rise to insecurity, he said even though there are no simple solutions to the challenges, he however, maintained that the federal government will effectively bring its full power to bear in tackling insecurity and its threats to collective existence.
Clerics and other contributors frown at the ignorance of some youths who use religion to commit atrocities. They want Nigerians to be open-minded irrespective of their faith and religion to promote peace in diversity.
UFUK Dialogue foundation which is a non-governmental organization dedicated to promoting dialogue and establishing mutual coexistence, hope that Nigerians will continue to pursue peaceful coexistence to make the world a better place.
Ufuk Dialogue strongly believes that the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals are crucial and that we all should support them in the capacity that we can.
