Adedayo Akinwale
The Director-General of the Progressive Governors’ Forum (PGF), Dr. Salihu Lukman, has lamented that Nigeria’s unity is under threat on a large scale due to the inability of political leaders to reach an agreement or lack of commitment to implement agreement reached.
He added that the ongoing campaign for power shift, which is about writing or respecting the rules, should be handled within the structures of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Lukman made this known in a statement issued yesterday in Abuja, saying the inability of Nigerian politicians to facilitate political negotiations and consensus building is responsible for the current difficulties facing all the geo-political zones of the country.
He said undoubtedly, there are efforts by successive political leaders, especially since the end of the civil war, to facilitate institutionalised processes of consensus building in the country.
The APC chieftain noted that whether those processes have produced agreements among the constituents’ parts of the country is also a challenge.
According to Lukman, “However, the fact that national unity remained under threat, even on a bigger scale, is indicative of either the absence of agreement or lack of commitments by political leaders to implement agreements.
“Part of the growing challenge is that commitment of political leaders from all parts of the country to facilitate processes of consensus building is more diminishing. How can we as a nation push our political leaders to be more dedicated to facilitating processes of consensus building and at the same time become more committed to implementing agreements reached?”
The forum director-general stressed that difficulties in developing or strengthening initiatives to facilitate national unity in the country have engendered situations whereby all sections of the country are contemptuous of one another.
Lukman pointed out that high contempt for one another has also created unhealthy dynamics such that when initiatives for national unity are introduced, they become additional incentives for sharper divisions in the country.
The APC chieftain was of the opinion that the process of re-organisation going on in the ruling party presents an advantage to commence a campaign to review provisions of the APC manifesto to strengthen political initiatives for national unity.
