A social activist, Anabs Sara-Igbe, has said that the country should downplay religion and ethnicity to make progress and compete with other countries of the world.
Speaking on backdrop of Nigeria’s independence anniversary in which the country celebrates 61 years of independence from Britain the social activist said that religion and ethnicity should be de-emphasized for the country’s growth.
He said: “My advice is we should downplay ethnicity and religion. These are the two major reasons why we are having insecurity, why we are not developing. The moment we downplay religion and ethnicity I think we can do better”.
He said in developed countries people would not care about religion and ethnicity and once people live long in an area they automatically become citizens and contribute to the development of the area.
“The moment we see ourselves as Nigerians that every part of the country belongs to all of us and nobody will be called indigenes and non-indigenes it becomes clearer that we can develop, that we can move forward”.
The social activist alleged the current administration was not leading Nigerians towards unity but towards ethnicity and religion saying what obtained were self-centredness and nepotism where government officials after an election think only of themselves and members of their family.
He also said political parties had no ideology saying that politicians’ interest was to grab power and enrich themselves and members of their family.
He said political parties had also failed to exercise control over those who won election on their platform saying once they win they become leaders of the party and dictate how things should be done.
He said the country was not developing politically, economically, socially and in terms of security saying that they were problems facing the country.
He said leaders should be in power to leave legacies and not just be in power.
Sara-Igbe said that the country had not done much in terms of development 61 years after independence.
He said: “Nigeria at 61 I don’t think we have done much. We have not done anything in terms of developing our own economy. We have not done much in terms of security. We have not done much in terms of our social life. We have not done much in terms of infrastructure. As a country we should be thinking of manufacturing most of the things we are importing but today at 61 we are still importing toothpick”.
He said at 61 the country should rely less on oil and improve on agriculture saying that totally depending on oil should be discouraged.
The social activist said: “Nigeria at 61 our state governments are still dependent on the federal government where they go cap in hand begging to share allocation every month when the country is blessed with several resources both mineral and natural resources. We are not thinking of going to explore them. We are not thinking of how to generate. We are thinking of how to expend”.
He also said that the country’s leadership lacked foresight.
Nigeria gained its independence from Britain on October 1, 1960 after years of colonial rule by Britain.
