The two renowned scholars made this recommendation during
the recently held Public lecture organised by the Kings University Faculty of
Humanities, Management and Social Science titled “Gambolling on the Edge of the
Precipice: How not to allow regular nation-building challenges destroy a land
of promise.”
Professor Adenike Kuku likened Nigeria’s current challenges
to birth pangs experienced by mothers when a child is to be born. “The nation
is at the cusp of monumental changes if these challenges are well managed,
especially through diplomatic channels – conflict resolutions, discussions, and
conversations held in an environment devoid of strife and suspicions”. She
posited.
Kuku also joined in the clamour for restructuring that will
lead to true federalism, devolution of power, local government autonomy, and
fiscal autonomy for the state legislature and judiciary, etc. “These actions
form parts of the possible and enduring solutions that will pull Nigeria back
from the precipice of disintegration,” she added.
Guest lecturer, Professor Femi Mimiko, argued that wise
management of the country’s diversity is the only solution to the challenges
presently confronting the nation.
He said, “nation-building is the process of making an
attitudinally unified entity out of a bouquet of ethnic nationalities
inhabiting a clearly defined territorial state”.
The professor of political science insisted that the
end-state that emerges from adopting this approach is a truly decentralised
nation where little or no cleavages subsist, and such that exist are managed in
a manner that does not threaten spatial integrity of the country.
He posited that: “the process of nation-building is
intrinsic to national development everywhere and Nigeria would not be an
exception if the country is to achieve its potential. Every country (newer,
prismatic) had at one time or the other had to deal with similar ones, on their
development trajectory”.
According to Mimiko, none of Nigeria’s extant challenges
such as economic non-performance; insecurity; corruption; mismanagement of
diversity; and dysfunctional (state) structure of governance is novel, and
emulation possibilities already existed in climes that have already overcome
these challenges.
The don listed South Africa, Rwanda, and Sri Lanka as
examples of countries that have passed through similar difficulties. Hence, he
contends that “it is imperative and urgent to structurally align the Nigerian
state with its diverse society to surmount the current crises.”
“A structurally defective water stanchion can’t be expected
to support loaded overhead tanks. It must be reconstructed for functionality.
The Nigerian state needs reconstruction to eliminate exclusion, the primary
basis of its challenges,” Mimiko
concluded.