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States, Drain on Nigeria, Says Agabi

Gov Adamu heads 12-man committee on ethnic problems
From Lillian Okenwa in Abuja with agency report

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The Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Senator God-win Kanu Agabi, yesterday said that states and local governments have become a drain on the nation.

Speaking at a national conference on the Ethnic Question, organised by Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, in Abuja, the minister expressed regret at the manner in which ethnicity has eaten into the psyche of Nigerians.

The Federal Government has therefore constituted a 12-man committee, headed by Nasarawa State Governor Abdullahi Adamu, on ethnic and citizenship problems.

Agabi noted, "that the nation was far more united in those days when we had three regions than now when we have 36 states. The nation was far more efficient and less corrupt in those days than now."

Stressing that states and local governments have become a drain on the nation, Agabi said "what is responsible for this is the needless agitation of the states for more and more freedom so that they may not come under any kind of supervision whatsoever."

He said that "that is how they are at the moment free from all control and subject to no supervision. Because of the great harm, "this is doing to the nation, it is necessary to remind the states that they were not originally nations, which came into the union, each with its own rights. To say, therefore, that they owe no allegiance to the Federal Government is an abomination."

Urging Nigerians to come together as one, he submitted, "what makes America the great nation that she is, is her diversity and what makes our own country rank above other African countries is our diversity. If we employ that diversity positively, it will not be long before we rank amongst the most developed nations of the world."

Agabi also said that the threat of globalisation should compel Nigerians to unite.

"The threat of globalisation should compel us to unite. Globalisation is another word for economic assimilation. The overwhelming flood of globalisation will uproot and carry away and absorb the weak nations of the world.

"Globalisation threatens to de-culturise communities or nations that are not able to hold onto their own. Unless we are strong, we shall, in no time at all, lose our identity.

"Globalisation has started by opening up the world to goods. Goods can now pass freely. But soon, whether man likes it or not, boundaries shall collapse and men and women shall be able to pass freely without passports as is now happening between the nations of Europe and the states of America,

"So, soon in this world, the language that you speak or your country of origin will be immaterial. Begin therefore to think in terms of one man and one world without boundaries," the justice minister said.

Explaining that ethnicity in itself was not bad, he advised Nigerians to have a sense of family and history. "Without love of family, there can be no love of the tribe. Without love of the tribe, there can be no love of the nation. In fact, without love of self there can be no love of others.

"But if tribal considerations become the justification for our misconduct or for unjust conduct, if we become so passionate for the tribe that we lose our reason or sense of justice, then, surely, there is reason for concern," he said.

Declaring the conference open Minister of State in the Ministry of Justice, Alhaji Musa Elayo said the Federal Government has constituted a committee to address ethnicity and citizenship problems in the country.

Elayo said the committee, headed by Governor Adamu of Nasarawa State, was expected to tour the country to address such problems.

He said the 12-member committee comprised other governors and some ministers, and urged the conference participants to suggest how to curb ethnic conflicts in the country.

In an address of welcome, a Supreme Court judge, Justice Alfa Belgore, who is the Chairman of the governing board of the institute, said the conference was designed to seek solutions to the country's problems.

He said ethnicity had become an instrument used by the elite, especially during elections, to refuse co-operation with winners by losers.

Belgore noted that the situation had made the country vulnerable to economic stagnation and political instability.

The remedy was to provide the citizens with sound education, he said, adding that a blueprint for an effective handling of the ethnic question would be produced at the end of the three-day conference to provide an input for legislation on the matter.

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