According to former president Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria’s founding fathers who achieved independence should bear responsibility for their country’s weak nation-building efforts.
Prof. Udenta Udenta celebrated his 60th birthday yesterday, September 5, and as part of the celebrations, Jonathan made remarks at a national dialogue and public presentation of 21 books in his honour. Jonathan claimed that the founding fathers of Nigeria placed more importance on ethnic and identity politics than on creating a unified country.
The former President 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 with 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.”
