The Ekiti State Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, on Tuesday said there was nothing heroic in dying for a cause that dialogue can resolve.
This is just as he asked secessionist groups in the country to learn from the history of South Sudan which broke into war in the new nation two years after achieving self-determination.
Fayemi stated this as the guest lecturer at the combined 9/10th anniversary of Zik Lecture Series at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State.
He said a well-structured dialogue remained a major pathway to peace and progress, adding, “There is nothing heroic in dying for a cause that dialogue and negotiations can help resolve.”
The Ekiti governor, who is also the chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, stressed the need to develop a democratic system in Nigeria that would meet the expectations of Nigerians and restore people’s trust in the government.
Fayemi, who spoke on the theme, ‘Nation-Building: Between Restructuring and Autonomy,’ said Nigerians must learn to manage their differences to achieve the goal of a better union.
He said, “The indestructibility of Nigeria, as envisaged by Zik is indeed best assured when the majority of Nigerians are emotionally connected to Nigeria because of what Nigeria is able to do for them and in the quality of life it provides for its citizens.”
Paying glowing tributes to Azikiwe, Fayemi said, “He was among the pioneering university-educated Africans who sojourned to the United States in their quest for knowledge and send-improvement. He was also a pioneering sportsman, public intellectual, journalist, newspaper proprietor – with 12 daily titles in his stable at a time – owner of a pan-Nigeria athletic club, and author.”
While arguing for the preservation of unity of Nigeria amidst agitations of groups like Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra and Indigenous People of Biafra, Fayemi enjoined Nigerians to learn from experience of a smaller African country, South Sudan, “which declared independence from Sudan in 2011 only for a fresh civil war to break out within the new nation two years after achieving self-determination which led to the death of about 400,000 people with over four million people displaced.”
“We, the people of Nigeria,” must truly mean that our considered aspirations have fed into the document that would form the fundamental organising principle of our nationhood. The opportunities are there.”
Also at the event were representatives of the five governors of the South-East states, widow of the late Zik, Prof. Uche Azikwe; the Obi of Onitsha, His Majesty Nnameka Achebe; and the Alawe of Ilawe Ekiti, Oba Adebanji Alabi.
The event was preceded by the turning of the sod for the Zik Centre within the university campus.