Former Minister of Youths and Sports Development, Comrade Solomon Dalung
ARMSTRONG ALLAHMAGANI, Bauchi –
The former Nigeria Minister of Youth and Sports, Barrister Solomon Dalung has accused Nigerian leaders of fueling insecurity across the country even as he said they are not sincere about tackling the menace.
Dalung who stated this while giving a key note address at the first National Conference of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP), Bauchi Chapter, said that unless the leaders eschew sentiments and reset their cultural values, they cannot surmount the security challenges.
The conference which had the theme: “Insecurity, Economic Growth and Governance Triangle: Nigeria in Focus”, held at the ASUP Secretariat Bauchi on Tuesday.
He said that it is very disheartening today that Nigeria’s cultural values have been distorted, alleging that the hypocritical nature of the value system of the elite class is responsible for the mutual suspicion, hatred and mistrust among Nigerians.
The former Minister said: ” If leaders in the country are sincere in addressing this challenge of security at hand passionately, devoid of sentiments, Nigeria would have come out of its predicaments long ago. The missing link is the cultural link which constitute the foundation upon which every super structure of our society is founded upon”
“We cannot access good governance without addressing our value system, if we as leaders are crying foul, that Nigeria is in a mess, then it means that we have not interrogated the true values of the society. The significance of our cultural values cannot be dispensed in building our nation.
“We must as a people, try to develop our national indentity and provide the enabling environment of uniting ourselves.”
He accused northern leaders for the predicaments of the Fulani race, adding that the northern leaders should stop blaming southern leaders and treat the Fulani race with justice to bring an end to the problem of farmers and herders clash in the country.
Dalung said that the welfare of traditional leaders in the country must be addressed to restore peace as they are the custodian of the people culture even as he warned leaders against contaminating tradition with politics.