By Yohana Samson
Former President Goodluck Jonathan, has expressed sadness that despite championing Nigeria’s Independence from colonial rule, our founding fathers failed to weave its ethnic nationalities into one nation.
Jonathan said this in his remarks during a national dialogue and public presentation of 21 books, held in honour of Prof. Udenta Udenta, as part of activities to mark his 60th birthday, in Abuja, on Tuesday.
The former Nigerian leader who served as chairman of the occasion, said the late President of Tanzania, Mwalimu Julious Nyerere, was a good example of a leader to after leading the struggle for independence succeeded in building the various ethnic nationalities into one nation.
He said, “Have we been able to convince ourselves whether we are a state or a nation? If we are a country and a state, how do we become a nation?
“I am not blaming our founding fathers but they failed to integrate us into a proper nation. They operated as individuals and so on.
“Of course, if you have read some of the comments of our former leaders, someone like (Obafemi) Awolowo made it very clear that there was no nation called Nigeria. That it is a geographical entity, it is a country, it is a state, it has laws but there is no nation.
“The country was so polarized especially during the early political party formation and the parties were regional parties.
“There was no sense of commitment to integrate Nigeria into an entity that you can say yes, this is a nation with core values, common philosophy and people will be patriotic to that nation.
“Most of the parties that time belonged to regions and there were no alliances for the purpose of ruling the country.
“When I compare Nigeria and a country like Tanzania, I feel that Julius Nyerere made his vision clear to make Tanzania a nation. They have different tribes, maybe not as many as Nigeria but one nation was at the height of his thoughts.”
“He (Nyerere) made sure that every person from Tanzania speaks that (one) language, those who go to primary, secondary and tertiary schools quickly adhered to this as Nyerere made education compulsory.
“So, you hardly see somebody who didn’t get at least basic knowledge of the language in what we call the first nine years of school education. At that level, you communicate in Swahili.”
He stated that if the recommendations of the 2014 national conference had been implemented, “We will not say we have a country called Nigeria, we will not say we have a state called Nigeria, we will also say we have a nation called Nigeria.”
