Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has cautioned elites that In their quest for power and leadership must not toy with prejudices that alienate or divide any section of the country, rather they should conduct themselves with a high sense of responsibility in order to build a new Nigeria where there is justice, equity and shared prosperity.
The Vice President said this while delivering a lecture at the maiden Policy Making and Good Governance Series of the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru, Plateau State, noting that deliberate efforts must be taken to deal with ethnic profiling and prejudices before they influence political contests.
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Prof. Osinbajo outrightly condemned reported attempts in some parts of the country that denied some Nigerians their right to vote in the 2023 general elections, saying that any attempt to deny people the right to vote in any locality on the basis of tribal affiliations is condemnable in the strongest possible terms.
The Vice President also noted that when ethnic or religious prejudices are weaponised for political purposes, Nigerians are confronted with a lethal potentially destructive situation.
On the way forward of building a stronger Nigeria, Osinbajo said that the most prosperous places are countries that have learned to harness diversity while building more inclusive institutions and must ennoble and validate the Nigeria that the young people are consciously or unconsciously building, this is the future Nigeria want.
He Urges Nigerians to learn from the Rwandan genocide which claimed about a million lives, pointing out that the lives lost in Nigeria’s civil war, which he observed was fuelled by bigotry, exploitation of prejudice and the incitement of hatred against ethnic communities.
(Editor : Ena Agbanoma)
