On this day in 1998, the UK published the Good Friday Agreement that ended the troubles in Northern Ireland. Would you not just love it if President Tinubu followed suit with a similar initiative today

Ayo Akinfe

[1] Unfortunately, the Buhari years were the most divisive in our history. When you look at the lingering effects of the Fulani herdsmen crisis, it is clear that we are now a highly traumatised nation in desperate need of healing

[2] Nigeria is an amalgam of nationalities. We are the third most diverse nation in the world after Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, made up of about 350 ethnic groups and have about 650 dialects. Managing this melting pot is not for the visionless. To govern Nigeria, you need to be aware of these sensitivities and have a master plan to avoid them boiling over

[3] No African nation is monolithic but even by African standards Nigeria is complex. We are about seven typical African nations merged into one - Sokoto Caliphate, Kanem-Borno, Middle Belt City States, Niger Delta City States, Igbo City States, Oyo Empire and Benin Empire. Nigeria’s government has the unenviable task of welding all these groups into one

[4] Ghana for instance is as complex as the Niger Delta City States as she has maybe as many ethnic groups as the Niger Delta. It is thus no surprise that Nigeria proposed independence in 1951 and Ghana followed suit but as it happened, Ghana ended up getting independence three years before Nigeria in 1957. Our various ethnic groups were still wrangling among each other and could not agree on a way forward whereas in Ghana, the Asante and Fante reached an agreement and that was it

[5] In Nigeria, we never really reached a consensus about independence until 1954 when Tafawa Balewa came back from the US. When he saw what was happening there, he managed to get the Northern Peoples Congress to change its stance from “independence in our lifetime” to “independence now.” One can question if we had the skills set, structure, orientation, productive capacity, discipline and know-how for independence but hey, we became independent in 1960 and have been on this bumpy ride ever since

[6] After his return from the US, Tafawa Balewa said: “If the various and disparate races in America can live together and forge a common goal, so too can we.” His idea was that nationally should end up triumphing over primordial ethnicity. This principle was encapsulated by the former Mozambican president Samora Machel when he said: “For the nation to grow, the tribe must die.”

[7] As things stand, Nigeria has not made the kind of progress we should have when it comes to integration. Our elite keep dividing us along ethnic and religious lines and the masses keep falling for it. During the Buhari years for instance, ethnic tension grew dramatically in Nigeria because the federal government was insensitive to the matter, it fuelled nepotism with its appointments and there are no sanctions for irresponsible utterances

[8] To matters worse, whenever there was a clampdown, it was highly selective as we saw with the case of Nnamdi Kanu. I hope Bola Tinubu is aware of the fact that it is injustice like this that fuelled the Obedient Movement

[9] As we embark on the next phase of national development under Bola Tinubu, a Nigerian Equal Opportunities Bill needs to be sent to the National Assembly to address the issue of nepotism. The biggest victims are actually members of Nigeria’s ethnic minorities. Ask yourself if Nigeria is prepared to elect an Idoma president with an Itshekiri vice president

[10] President Tinubu needs to get his National Orientation Agency chairman to act with audacity. He needs someone who will make every Nigerian take a solemn pledge that they will never regard a fellow nationale as inferior and never exercise nepotism when it comes to decision making. We have come a long way as we have the Super Eagles, inter-marriages, suya, pepper soup, etc, which unite us but it is not yet uhuru