From Gyang Bere, Jos
The Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo has encouraged Nigerians to shun ethnic, religious and sectional profiling to build a homeland where democracy and development can strive.
Prof. Osinbajo disclosed this on Monday while presenting a maiden lecture series to members of Senior Executive Course N0. 45 of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, NIPSS, held at the Institute in Kuru, Jos, Plateau State.
The lecture, titled, “Creating a homeland for all: Nation building in a diverse democracy”, the Vice President described as dangerous the idea of weaponising ethnicity and religion by certain individuals to achieve personal gains.
“When ethnic or religious prejudices are weaponised for political purpose, we are confronted with lethal potentially destructive situation. Elections by their very nature tend to be divisive affairs. Partisan democratic competition compels us to align ourselves with camps that most reflect our ideals and aspirations.
“In a diverse society such as ours, democratic competition is intensified by the sociocultural cleavages that exists in society. This is true of any heterogeneous democracy.”
He added that “In election cycle in which the major contenders came from different ethno-regional zones, there was always a sense that the competition was going to be particularly intense. But at the same time, it would not be accurate to reduce the election to ethnic census.
“As we saw, the contenders performed strongly in parts of the country other than their natal regions. Unfortunately, one of the unsavoury tendencies that was witnessed in this election circle was the weaponisation of sectional prejudices in ways that are damaging to society cohesion.”
Osinbajo noted that religion was made clearly an issue during the last election in some parts of the country where political biases were introduced even between the denominations of the same religion.
He lamented how ethnic profiling in some cases took place at polling booths during the 2023 elections and said for Nigeria to develop and move forward with other developed nations of the world, such attitudes must be resisted by all.
“It is incumbent upon politicians to conduct their competition responsibly. In all the countries that have been relatively successful in the journey to overcoming prejudice, leadership is critical. The elites of of both countries recognized that cohesion and peaceful co-existence have to intentionally prioritised and pursued.” He stated.
Plateau State Governor, Simon Lalong noted that policies are expected to be formulated on the basis of national or state aspirations, driven by the concept of the general good and progress of the people.
” Unfortunately, we have witnessed time and again where good policies have been either jettisoned or poorly executed in Nigeria on the basis of politics and other considerations that do not reflect the general interest.
“This situation which has deteriorated over the years particularly within our democratic experience continues to impact negatively on the slow level of development in virtually all sectors. It is sad to note that rather than focus on sustaining good policies that drive national agenda and strengthen the Nigerian State, many office holders sacrifice this virtue on the altar of politics which is sometimes motivated by parochial considerations driven by ethno-religious considerations among others.”
He said his administration sustained the policy of continuity in governance where it completed projects initiated by the previous PDP administration and initiated new ones that impacted positively on the people.
The Director General of National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, NIPSS Kuru, Prof. Ayo Omotayo warmly welcomed the Vice President and described him as a reservoir of knowledge which the institute would continue to depend on for better policy formulation.