Nigeria among world’s most fragile countries ―Soludo

FORMER Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, Professor Charles Soludo, on Tuesday, took a hard look at the nation’s socioeconomic and political problems and concluded that the country is at a crossroads.

Professor Soludo, who made the observation while moderating a panel of discussants on a topic entitled: “The big ideas podium: Towards a new leadership for a broken nation,” said Nigeria was being ranked as one of the fragile countries in the world.

The ex-CBN governor maintained that Nigeria as of today had never been more divided in the country’s history than now.

“Largely, big ideas rule the world and constitute about 75 per cent of any project. Nigeria is a project; it is a work-in-progress. African continent is a work-in-progress. It is only big ideas that work. Nigeria is at a crossroads,” he said.

Soludo, who is also the chairman of the African Heritage Institution, Enugu, Enugu State and organiser the programme, said there were nationality questions.

“There is the need to search for the big ideas to help in the transformation that will really get Nigeria moving forward and leap from the process of development to be able to claim its rightful place among the comity of nations and fulfill its manifest,” he said.

According to him, “destiny is only big ideas, formative ideas that can do so. So, under this big ideas forum of the African Heritage Institution, we are looking out of the ordinary, the missing links and what are those new things that we need to put in place.”

In his paper entitled: “The imperative of national crossroad leadership,” a former Director-General of the Nigeria Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), Professor George Obiozor, stated that the idea, explanation or definition of the term leadership was complex and controversial, adding that it had been the focus of intense academic and public debate for over 2000 years.

Obiozor noted that “Nigeria is a nation born in optimism in 1960 at independence, but has in its 56 years lived in a state of doubt and uncertainty. Within those years too, all kinds of analysis and conclusions have been assembled on critical issues responsible for what has become a Nigeria dilemma over its leadership, nation building and national development.”

Ambassador Obiozor recalled that “recently, some Nigerian political leaders have said that Nigerian unity is not negotiable.

“This is an irony, because these leaders have forgotten or have failed to learn the lessons of history. Nigerian unity is definitely negotiable and must be renegotiated for it to stand or survive the test of time. The reality over the years remains that in spite of the best efforts of all our leaders past or present, Nigerian unity is not guaranteed.

“It is simply, at best, an aspiration and not yet an achievement. Hence, the statement that Nigerian unity is ‘not negotiable’ is simply a historical fallacy.”