Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has called on 36 governors to convoke a national unity summit to proffer solutions to the challenges facing the country.
In a statement personally signed by the former Presidential candidate yesterday, he urged the governors to apply wisdom in tackling the challenges, counseling them against looking up to the Presidency for a solution.
Instead, he canvassed a summit to be convened by governors to iron out the thorny issues affecting the destiny of the nation with a view to figuring out a way to resolve them.
He said: ‘Forget about your party. Forget about your tribe. Respect your religion and allow it to bring out the better part of you. Meet together. Talk together. Come up with the solutions to all our collective challenges.
‘And then go back to your states, and consult with your federal and state legislators, with a view to getting them to work with their colleagues to implement the solutions you came up with.
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‘To keep waiting for this Federal Government to take the lead and effect the changes that Nigeria needs to stop drifting is to keep waiting for Godot. And that is a luxury we cannot afford’.
The former vice president warned that Nigeria is drifting, stressing that it is not only drifting politically and economically, but also, the people are drifting apart from one another.
Noting that the drift is no longer between the North and the South, but between good and bad, the former vice president charged: ‘Those who are good should come together to show those who are bad that we are in the overwhelming majority.
‘I have repeatedly said that I am a Nigerian. Full stop. That is my identity. And now more than ever, we must ask ourselves this question: what does it mean to be a Nigerian?
‘A Nigerian is one who is committed to the idea of the indivisibility of Nigeria and who is invested in respecting, even if you disagree with, the differences that exist within this nation space, and respecting the right of others to coexist with you irrespective of religious, regional or ethnic differences.
‘That is what being a Nigerian means to me. And that is why I believe that all those who believe in Nigeria should stand up to be counted.
‘It is un-Nigerian to terrorise fellow citizens, noting that up until about a decade ago, the nation did not have this division. According to him, it is unNigerian to abduct people.
AFRICA TODAY NEWS, NEW YORK