Being Lead paper presented by Barrister Solomon Dalung at Two days Worshop for Clergy/Pastors organized by Ministry of Religious and Community Relations Bauchi State at the Conference Hall of Shindaba Hotel Bauchi from 21st - 22nd June 2013.
Iam highly honoured for the privilege accorded me to cross pollinate ideas with this audience with the aim of provoking thoughts that will provide alternative opportunities to review critical question that in contemporary history has attracted serious concerns. This discuss looks at the key concepts and review various opinions of scholars in relation to conceptualization. The role of spiritual leadership in enhancing social harmony in the Nigerian project is also examined and finally concluded with some considered opinions that may be of advantage to current challenges to peaceful co-existence.
On occasions of this nature, it is imperative that stock taking and assessment of social relationships with the barometer of public responsibilities is reappraised with the view to enhancing better welfare conditions for citizens. The whole concept of democratic culture revolves around rights, privileges and social security which is determined by the quality of leadership in place. Therefore, any act that short-circuit this reduces its value to glorified dictatorship. Of course, the involvement of spiritual leaders as custodians of moral values is germane in developing econsciousness will evolve credible leadership. This democratic experiment since its inception has remain vulnerable to instability which has perverted every aspect of steady progress and without peace nothing is attainable.
Introduction:
The unfortunate developments in contemporary history in Nigeria have generated public concern about future of Nigerian federation as a political entity. Quite disturbing is escalating regime of violent crimes, religious and ethnic tensions. Consequently, economic and social relationships drifts into state of comatose in most commercial cities which justified the fears of many that the nation may not be able to navigate the storm of uncertainty to far. Security challenges, religious intolerance coupled with massive corrupt in public places have dominated every national discourse. The insurgent question has been politicized with attendant consequences on human lives and properties. The culture of fear with mutual suspicion determines every aspect of human relationships. Sadly, the capacity of the state to contend with these challenges obviously is below expectations.
There are different schools of thought about the origin of the state of affairs. Professor Ali Mazuiri, while reacting to crisis of introduction of Sharia in some Northern States argued that amongst the things that trigger the shariah advocacy in some northern states of Nigeria, was the resentment of being at the periphery of Nigerian politics and power configuration. There were points when the northern leaders held sway politically in the power configuration, but the 1999 elections, saw the balance of power shifting south without any remarkable transformation in the economics of the north. Hence, the politics of shariah advocacy was part of a protest against regional economic in equalities existing in Nigeria[1]
On the contrary, some opinions considered the insurgency question as an attempt by some Muslims to islamize the Country. This school of thought is popular among some Christians while the power shift theory orchestrated mostly by a segment of Southern political elites in defence of leadership failure. However, as the nation drifts towards catastrophe, hunger, poverty, unemployment, corruption ravages the citizenry unabated. The net effects of these traumatic developments may explains the agitation for a National Sovereign Conference, (NSC) as means of resolving some burning national questions.
PEACEFUL CO-EXISTENCE
Peaceful co-existence is a term derived from Peace which is a state of harmony characterized by lack of violent conflict, commonly understood as the absence of hostility. Peace also suggests the existence of healthy or newly healed interpersonal or international relationships, prosperity in matters of social or economic welfare, the establishment of equality and a working political order that serves the true interest of all. In international relations, peace is not the absence of war or conflict, but also the presence of cultural and economic understanding.
From Latin pax, meaning, “freedom from civil disorder”, the English word came into use in personal greetings from the Thirteen Century as a translation of the Hebrew word shalom. Such a translation is, however, imprecise, as shalom, which is a cognate with the Arabic, “salaam”, has multiple other meanings in addition to peace, which includes justice, safety, well-being, prosperity, equity, prosperity, good fortune, and friendliness. At a personal level, peaceful behavior are kind, considerate, respectful, just, and tolerant of others belief and behavior, tending to manifest goodwill.
This later understanding of peace can also pertain to an individual’s introspective sense of concept of her/himself, as in being “at peace”, in one’s own mind, as found in European references from the twentieth Century. The early English word is used for “quet”, reflecting calm, serene, and meditative approaches to family or group relationships that avoid quarreling and seek tranquility and absence of disturbance or agitation.
In many languages the word peace is used as a greeting or a farewell Salaam, for example the Hawaiian word Aloha, as well as the Arabic word Salaam. In English the word peace is occasionally used as farewell, especially for the dead, as in the phrase ‘Rest in Peace’.
Religious beliefs often seek to identify and address the basic problem of human life, including the conflicts between, among and within persons and societies.
Christians believed Jesus of Nazareth to be the “Prince of peace, the Messiah Christ who established a Kingdom of Peace where persons, societies, and all of creation are to be healed of evil. For persons to enter the Kingdom and experience peace, Christians believed that one must develop a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, who stated “Come to me, all you who labour and are burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for Iam meek and humble of heart, and you will find rest of your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light”, (Mathew 11:28-30)
While Islam means submission. The title “Muslim” etymologically directly related to Salaam and the name Islam means a person who submits to Allah in Salaam. The submission to Allah (the Arabic proper noun for “God”, One and only) is based on humility. An attitude of humility within one’s own self cannot be accomplished without total rejection of violence, and personal attitude and alignment toward peace.
These two dominant religions in Nigeria advocate peace and humility and de-emphasized violence. So how can one reconcile the current wave of socio religious and ethnic conflicts that characterized most parts of Northern States where majority of the people profess these religions? What can be responsible for the collapse of both moral and spiritual values to the extent that incessant killings of fellow human beings has displaced the humility and peace demanded by God?
CONFLICT MANAGEMENT:
Conflict resolution is a set of ideas and ways to reduce sources of conflict. The term conflict resolution is sometimes used interchangeably with the term dispute resolution. The terms conflict and dispute overlap. As a term, conflict is broader than dispute, more concerned with physical action, and less concerned with verbal arguments. Processes of conflict resolution generally include negotiation, mediation, and diplomacy. The processes of arbitration, litigation, and formal complaint processes such as ombudsman processes, are usually described with the term dispute resolution, although some refer to them as conflict resolution.
Conflict resolution is conceptualized as the methods and processes involved in facilitating the peaceful ending of conflict. Often, committed group members attempt to resolve group conflicts by actively communicating information about their conflicting motives or ideologies to the rest of the group (e.g., intentions; reasons for holding certain beliefs, and by engaging in collective negotiation. (Forsyth, 2009).
It may be important to note that the term conflict resolution may also be used interchangeably with dispute resolution, where arbitration and litigation processes are critically involved. Furthermore, the concept of conflict resolution can be thought to encompass the use of nonviolent resistance measures by conflicted parties in an attempt to promote effective resolution.(Adam Roberts and Timothy Garton, 2009)
Conflict management is often considered to be distinct from conflict resolution. In order for actual conflict to occur, there should be an expression of exclusive patterns, and tell why the conflict was expressed the way it was. Conflict is not just about simple inaptness, but is often connected to a previous issue. The latter refers to resolving the dispute to the approval of one or both parties, whereas the former concerns an ongoing process that may never have a resolution. Neither is it considered the same as conflict transformation, which seeks to reframe the positions of the conflict parties.(ibid)
Conflict management refers to the long-term management of intractable conflicts. It is the label for the variety of ways by which people handle grievances standing up for what they consider to be right and against what they consider to be wrong. Those ways include such diverse phenomena as gossip, ridicule, lynching, terrorism, warfare, feuding, genocide, law, mediation, and avoidance. Which forms of conflict management will be used in any given situation can be somewhat predicted and explained by the social structure or social geometry of the case.(supra)
In any organized social community conflict seems to be a fact of life. We have all seen situations where different people with different goals and needs have come into conflict. And we have often witnessed intense personal animosity that can result into conflict. The fact that conflict exists, however, is not necessarily a bad thing, as long as it is resolved effectively, it can lead to personal and professional growth. However, the neglect or mismanagement of conflict situation may have adverse consequences on social harmony and economic advancement.
In many cases, effective conflict resolution can make the difference between positive and negative outcomes. The good news is that by resolving conflict successfully it can solve many of the problems that it has brought to the surface, as well as getting benefits that you might not at first expect.
Having considered the general principles of conflict management, it is proper to locate same within social context. Conflict indices in Nigeria are multi faceted, ranging from poverty, hunger, unemployment which manifested into conflict socio religious, ethnic or sectarian crisis or general insecurity. This phenomenon has created leadership burden, which as a result made some scholars and foreign nations to predict the collapse of the nation in no distant future. It is not the presence of conflict that is of concern but the capacity to manage it.
In tracing the roots of the conflict situation in Nigeria, Loimeier, (2003) argued that so many years back the country started manifesting malignant symptoms of this current situation. However, weak citizenship political consciousness was exploited by manipulating sentiments to create divisions. It also contributed to gradual erosion of value system with collapse of reward system. With these scenarios, the stage was ripe for corruption and other leadership vices to dominate public responsibilities. While the current democratic enterprise has produce a self-style imposed and deceptive leaders, who lead by deception and create Islamic revivalism to mobilize and capture cheap support by claiming to be introducing Islamic legal principles amidst missive collapse of services, poverty, failed governance, absence of social justice and a fair electoral process which produced consensus candidates that lack legitimacy. Corrupt and power hungry politicians, who hijacked votes and self imposed leaders, declare billions of fictitious amounts of Naira as assets only to be recouped as investments through falsification and over pricing of contracts awards, in spite of the existence of framework of due process and diligence in contract awards and procurement.
THE CHALLENGE OF RELIGIOUS LEADERS:
The deteriorating social harmony between Christians and Muslims in Nigeria has attained alarming proportions. Before now these faiths enjoyed peaceful co-existence playing complimentary roles in building national harmony but reverse is the situation now.
Analyzing this ugly situation, while speaking on the topic "Non-Muslims Rights within Muslim Society" an International African Scholar, Dr. Almukashifi Taha Al-kabbashi, stated that Christians are "ahlul kitaab" meaning "men of the book" and not "kafir" which means "infidel". He proceeded to define the rights of Christians within an Islamic society which includes the freedom to practice there religion. He went further to argued that "there is no compulsion in religion". while buttressing this point he cited relevant provisions in the Holy Qua'ran and Hadith. "There is intermarriage between you, ahlul kitaab and the Jews. You cannot attack them unless they aggress you and seek to prevent you from practicing your religion" he postulated.
He lamented the degeneration of social harmony in Nigeria especially the growing rift between Christians and Muslims. He stated that Islam means peace and that in contemporary times Islam is misconceived as synonymous with violence based on negative trends associated with it. Islam abhorred violence and no true Muslim will embrace violence as crusade mechanism for Islam according to him.
For me it was quite interesting and eye opening because I had held the opinion that
violence has some established traditions in Islam because of the manner and way some Muslim clerics propagates Islam. The concept jihad has created serious misgivings between Christians and Muslims in Nigeria, because to non Muslims, it simply means the killing of kafir in prosecution of holy war. I had listened to some clerics making uncomplimentary remarks about Christians. And I now wonder from where did such clerics derived their own revelations which contradicts the teachings of the Holy Prophet, (Peace be upon Him)? I think something is basically wrong with these contradictions between reality and religious doctrines.
No doubt the answer to this unfortunate developments lies within the confines of our political life. Politics as a concept is instrumental to the state of decay in both moral and religious values. Religious leaders are culprits of this growing divide between the two religions. Instead of propagating the gospel they are more or less mega phones of the corrupt political system. In realizing material advantage, religion is manipulated to keep people perpetually divided so that they can be controlled. Our religious leaders cannot face political leaders with any question bordering on injustice and corruption rather they preferred night visits to country homes to determine the content of their sermons. He who play the piper dictates the tune according to African adage. As a result of compromise of responsibilities by custodians of conscience, our political contents is determined by religious affiliations to the extent that a non performing or corrupt political office holder continue to enjoy support of his fellow religious members without sanctions. It's so bad that we have lost our sense of reasoning to religious sentiments.
Our Muslim brothers must do much to disassociate Islam from these manipulations and negative image building. Clerics with the penchant of calling Christians kafir must be reprimanded as its anti Islamic to refer to ahlul kitaab as such. Also, Muslim leaders should concentrate more on interfaith dialogue to promote better understanding. The use of demeaning terms on ahlul kitaab has no doubt contributed to escalates misgivings between Christians and Muslims. The exploitation of extremism as vehicle for promotion of militant groups which wrecked unprecedented havoc on fellow citizens under the guise of Islamic crusade has no scriptural foundations. What has also created negative impressions in the minds of the Christians is the undignified silence of Islamic leaders to dis associate Islam from activities of arms carrying groups taking cover under religion to prosecute political goals.
All that is expected from Muslim leaders is to distant islam from criminality and extend hands of friendship for collaboration to contend with the situation. We cannot achieve any meaningful progress without peace. Experiences of other secular societies should be good guide for our search for peaceful co existence. Here, Kenya and America provides good templates for our peace studies. When these countries were attacked both Christians and Muslims united against a common enemy. Indeed they succeeded but in Nigeria, once there is an attack on the Church, Christians will raise to kill and maim more people than the terrorist attacks, so also the same thing with Muslims. The shout of Allah akabar can send so many innocent souls to heaven or hell. Can we pretense to be serving God when we shed innocent blood? I think there is no justification for it.
To the Christians there is need for shifting of grounds from the antagonist reactions because the Bible enjoys Christians to love their neighbors as Christ love them. We cannot compromise the teachings of Jesus Christ for any other thing. The Bible says without love nobody can please God. Imagine Our Lord Jesus stating how many times a Christian is entitled to forgive any person that offends her or him. The Bible says seventy times seven in one single day yet Christians today disregard this teching for self seeking vengeance. There is no doubt that any body who wants to follow Christ must carry His cross which he confirmed to us believers that it is heavy. Obviously there is problem with our attitudes and reactions to persecutions which Jesus clearly alerted Christians of it as part of the price to be paid for been his followers, therefore all that is happening today falls within devine prophesy for those that believe. If care is not utilize as a spiritual value many may be carried away by the present challenges and may fall off tract of discipleship.
Gone are the era where followers should blindly submits to teachings without cross checking same with Scriptures. Especially in the globalized world were the speed of information is without bounds. Both Christians and Muslims alike must purge themselves of the spirit of hatred which is deep rooted in our social interactions.
That you left your house for a journey is not conclusive that you may reach your destination. Once there is terrorist attack, then your faith must be reconcile with your route otherwise you are a living dead man. Ethnic and religious militias mount road blocks hunting for people of opposite faiths. Religious creeds is used as parameters to determine faith. In 2001, in Jos, I was faced with a situation where even as a Christian, I was compelled by fellow Christians at a road block to recite the Apostle creed with gun pointed on my head. Of course such recitations are done usually under solemn situation of worship and not mob guided conditions. Ironically, I could not complete it correctly and by Devine providence the mob concluded that I was one of their own and allowed me to go. We have lost so many lives under this circumstances so how long shall we continue like this?
We must be honest and sincere enough to admit that both Christians and Muslims are guilty of these carnages in the name of religion. Shall God admit those perpetuating all these heinous atrocities in heaven as their service to him on the day of judgement?' May God grant us the grace to accommodate each other so that peace and social harmony can prevail in our society amen.
NATIONAL INTEGRATION:
National integration is central to fostering cohesive security consciousness among citizens to guarantee territorial integrity, while strategies employ for amicable reconciliation of contending interests within a social system is germane to attaining national ideals.
National Integration is a very broad statement. To achieve national integration, the nation must pool human resources like cultural, religious, scientific, natural, educational etc, to achieve oneness in all spheres of life of the citizens so that progress can be achieved. With progress, the citizens can enjoy fruits of prosperity and happiness, living in harmony irrespective of the creed, language and cultural leanings professed by each as individuals.
National integration is the awareness of a common identity amongst the citizens of a country. It means that though we belong to different castes, religions, regions and speak different languages we recognize the fact that we are all one. This kind of integration is very important in the building of a strong and prosperous nation. The integration of multicultural groups into larger pan-local identities is at the heart of the idea of national integration. A brief definition of a nation is important for an understanding of national integration. A nation is a ‘large social group integrated by a combination of objective relationships (economic, political, linguistic, cultural, religious, geographic historical) and their reflection subjective in collective consciousness. (Hoch 1996).
It has also been seen as an expression of ‘large-scale solidarity, constituted by the feeling of the sacrifices that one has made in the past and of those that one is prepared to make in the future.’
Both definitions underscore Renan (1996) and Handler (1998) ideas that the nation is a ‘daily plebiscite,’ and a ‘continuous’ entity, that ‘constitutes a broad framework of interaction beyond specific sub-national identities. ‘These diverse linguistic, cultural and religious groups into broader entities are one of the most dominant features in the formation of nations. Multi-ethnicity is the rule rather than the exception, for there are virtually few nations (perhaps with the possible exception of Somalia) constituted by a single ethnic group. Second, and hinging on the first reason, nations have a historical past however tenuous that past may be: shared myths, culture, language or a common colonial experience. Third, there is often a territory or ancestral land serving as a ‘marker’ distinguishing one nation from others. Fourth, and finally, some level of communication, industrial development, and progress help to hasten the ‘blending’ process.
Applying these contextually so as to capture the true condition of Nigeria prior to1960 political independence, Anderson (1983) stated thus “Nigeria is not a nation. It is a mere geographical expression. There are no “Nigerians” in the same sense as there are “English,” “Welsh” or “French.” The word ‘Nigerian’ is merely a distinctive appellation to distinguish those who live within the boundaries of Nigeria from those who do not”
Arguing along this line, Clifford Imasuen states that “More than the past a number of decades, Nigerians have sought to create cheap printing company. Nevertheless, the nation constructing process has been largely difficult by Nigeria’s tremendous ethnic diversity and uneven distribution of resource. Since independence in 1960, the geographical expression known as Nigeria has striven without success to bring together the diverse ethnic nationalities into a single” When people speak of Nigeria derisively as an ‘accident,’ they could not, in some sense, have been more correct in their descriptions. All nations are in some sense ‘accidents ‘of history, ‘imagined communities ‘that could potentially develop broad national spaces by subsuming sub-national spaces.
These statements captured the true condition of Nigeria prior to 1960 when political independence was obtained. There has been no any positive change in this regard since then. Instead, the relationship among the constituent ethnic nationalities and religious groups has worsened drastically in spite of all pretenses to the contrary. Nigeria is not an ethnically homogenous society, having come into being accidentally, as it were, as a product of British imperialism. Today, rather than integrating into a cohesive community with a common sense of national identity and destiny, citizens of Nigeria are returning more and more to primordial affiliations for identity, loyalty and security. Instead of forging a united front and presenting a concerted effort to face the challenges of development in an increasingly competitive and globalized world, Nigerians are busy waging ethnic and religious wars, struggling for control over resources, resisting marginalization by dominant ethnic groups, and contending with diverse problems of basic survival. (Ekanola 2006)
The point thus is that nations neither drop from the sky, nor are they natural. People, through conscious, purposive activity construct nations; national integration is conscious process of social engineering. The process of construction of national integration takes different forms depending on which specific historical variable that dominated the sub national communities to emerge as the nuclei of solid national political and economic organization. The characteristics of such broad national communities are distinguishable by the followings, internationally recognized geographical boundaries, a fairly common if broad cultural and linguistic ethos, an identifiable feeling of belonging, and a state. According to (Rokkan (1972) and Yinger (1980), Mechanisms and methods for ‘blending’ multi-ethnic identities into national political communities sharing a common identity are numerous. The following have been identified, religion.
Whichever factor determines the construction of national integration depends on its relationship with other factors within specific historical interaction. Little wonder Tunde (1991) contended that “Many [Nigerians] deceive themselves by thinking that Nigeria is one….This is wrong. I am sorry to say that this presence of unity is artificial. Adding weight to this argument, Kuna (2005) stated that “In some contexts, religion became a rallying point in the formation of pan-local communities; in others, it was trade; in others it was war and coercion; yet again, it was any combination of these forces in other contexts.
The British had in 1899 revoked the charter of the Royal Niger Company. By 1914, it completed the process of bringing together several hundreds of ethnic, linguistic and cultural groups and communities which then had attained different levels of economic and political development. These strategies produced a state structure that was to become the servant of imperialism and all those metropolitan interests which owned their existence of the continuance of imperialism (Elekwe 1986)
The failure of the colonial powers to graft such desirable aspects of the past on to the present rather than super-impose their own experiences on us and our perpetration of this practice in the post independence period has in part led us into the quagmire of governmental instability. It is needless to reiterate the fact that such instability has diverted our attention from the fundamental goal of ensuring a better life for our populace. (Obasanjo 1989).
The Nigeria ruling class inherited this state structure without any form of modification or moderation. They rather became so preoccupied with the use of the state paraphernalia for accumulating surplus without through the processes of producing surplus. The resultant contradiction was an institutionalized myopic and visionless ethnic centered leadership with separatist and particularistic political outlook. (Nnoli, 1979)
In a nutshell, the construction of the Nigerian nation was fashioned not in the overall interest of sub national communities rather as a service centre of the departing imperial political community. Bye and large the emerging indigenous leadership compounded the situation by monopolizing ethnic and regional values against entrenching a national political community. Consequently, political instability and social unrest dominated the national landscape.
There is no gainsaying that at the heart of the Nigerian problem is not only the complex ethnic configuration but the mismanagement of national focus by leadership over a period of time. Instead of concentrating on building a national political community on the strength of diverse values as formidable basis for progress, parochial material accumulation has replaced patroticism in leadership.
THE ROLE OF LEADERSHIP:
Regardless of these challenges, the country has not disintegrated due to the invaluable sacrifices of noble compatriots galvanized by elastic citizenship tolerance. Of course these safe guards have limitation that requires constant service with justice and equity. Where leadership fail to reciprocate these goodwill, but rather embark of faulting the system, then there will be adverse implication on national integration.
Leadership as an institution became parochial scope against national interest. Consequently, the electoral process remains highly competitive and contentious thereby producing either a disputed, discredited or sometimes massively rigged polls. Even though Nigeria pride itself as belonging to democratic societies it has not been able to pass the litmus test of democratic traditions therefore, the current democratic experiment navigates from political storm to security challenges.
Of course analyzing the events that dominated the political landscape alongside the volatile atmosphere, it is clear that the polity is in near jeopardy of great conflict. The culture of perpetual denial that all is well or we are on top of the situation is disservice to national unity, which is mere face saving. The national debate on the future of the 1914 unholy political matrimony of the Northern and Southern protectorates is provoked by citizenship frustration with state of affairs. Therefore, It will be in the interest of national harmony to focus on the process of national reconciliation instead of the disintegration theory. Fragmentation cannot be better alternative to good governance because even after balkanization there will still be no progress as this leadership virus will still infect the new nations with more severe symptoms than what we are passing through now.
Obviously, absence of injustice has contributed greatly in exaggerating the state of insecurity bedeviling the country. There are rampant incidences of militancy, arm robbery, kidnapping, rape, hostage taking cross the nation with the unengaged productive segment of the social system patronizing these negative vices. No single moment is idle without report of any of the above. Of course, there will be no need for oracle consultation to arrive at scientific conclusion that the country is enjoying the grace of time to explode. It may look simple to ignore the symptoms but certainly not the consequences.
Closely related to the conflict paradigm is the theory of collapse of political institutions which naturally safeguards democratic culture for evolution of leadership. The inability of our electoral system to guarantee credible elections is at the centre of generating vote of no confidence in this democratic dispensation. At any general elections, the process become glaringly manipulated by either ballot stuffing, violence, alteration of figures, declaration of losers or sometimes outright rigging backed by state apparatus. In the last general elections, the people were frustrated with the electoral system leading to lost of lives and properties across Northern states. Therefore, the electoral process is another form of conflict within Nigerian polity.
Addressing these malignant situations requires radical surgery of leadership question which is a prerequisite for justice and peaceful co-existence. Leadership is a sacred burden which must not be sacrifice for political convenience.
It is our contention that election criminals including official collaborators within the system deserves capital penalty in view of the damage it has done to National cohesion. Special courts should be constitutionally created to enhance speedy trials, while verdicts from such tribunals should be executed within the soonest possible time after exhausting all rights of appeal. This will serve as deterrence to would be election offenders.
Another social phenomenon that has destroyed national integration is corruption in public places. Corruption has pervaded every social fabric including religion. It is corrupt practices that fuels escalation of religious and ethnic tensions leading to destruction of innocent lives and properties.
Therefore, severe sanctions including death penalty is hereby recommended as judicial means of combating this menace responsible not only for retarding development but also peaceful co-existence.
Also poverty, hunger and youth unemployment has been identify as a manipulative factor against peaceful co-existence. We herby challenged
Governments at all levels confront these social vices with determined zeal of reducing them to the barest minimum. These are potential social tsunamis that is capable of up surging national stability. As a panacea to youth restiveness Job creation must be sincerely pursue so as to pacify the restive constituency.
CONCLUSION:
In terminating this discuss, I will employ the experience of one of the leading world powers to drive home my theory of returning back to the drawing board. During the Second World War, chemical weapons were dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima in Japan which reduced it to rumbles. After the war the survivors resolved that they were going to spend every sources at their disposal on education to build the people that will build a new Japan. Fifty years later Japan is a world power.
The argument among leaders that fifty two years of independent is too young for Nigeria to make any meaningful progress is mere justification for leadership failure. The misplacement of budgetary priorities must be reverse in favour of education.
Therefore, Iam calling on governments at all levels to allocate thirty (30%) percent of annual budgetary allocations to education. Not only that, but education should be placed on first line charge for availability of funds for rapid development. The national curriculum on education must be restructured to accommodate certain positive traditional values so as to make it functional. The mechanism for realizing national integration, security and conflict resolution can only be found in a solid and viable educational system where the teacher is an indispensable factor. Anything contrary to this leaves the nation with severe consequences of social instability.
Thank you for your audience.
REFERENCES
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