By Osahon Osahon
Nigeria’s former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, has disputed claims by officials of the federal government who said the country’s unity remains non-negotiable, while doing a lot of things the destroy the country.
Atiku who spoke in Abuja on Thursday, at a national dialogue and public presentation of a book, ‘Remaking Nigeria: 60 years, 60 Voices’, noted that contrary to such beliefs, Nigeria’s unity is negotiable.
The former presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2019 general elections, noted that a marriage cannot be declared as non-negotiable, when one party is doing everything to sow seeds of discord within the same union..
According to the Turaki Adamawa, the government at the federal level has not done enough in nation-building, even as he accused the President Muhammadu Buhari administration of undoing the achievements of previous administrations in that aspect.
His words, “I find it amusing when people declare Nigeria’s unity as fixed and non-negotiable while doing everything in their power to destroy that fragile unity.
“Nothing in the relationships among peoples is fixed for eternity. You cannot declare your marriage as non-negotiable while doing everything to sow seeds of discord in that same marriage.
“You can whip groups of people into forming a country but you cannot whip them into forming a nation.
“Nations are built through conscious or even unconscious agreement by peoples who believe that being together is, on balance, more beneficial than being apart.”
