Nigeria Must Remain One - Jonathan

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Category: Politics
Published on Monday, 17 January 2011 07:55
Written by Leadership
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President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday in Abuja called on Nigerians to live in unity for the development and growth of the nation. Jonathan made the call at the Inter-denominational Church Service for the 2011 Armed Forces Remembrance Day Celebration. “In an occasion like this, we want to use it as an opportunity to call on all Nigerians to live in unity because for the nation to grow, for us to develop, we must be united in all aspects of our endeavours.

“As a nation, for us to develop, we must unite. We also call on Nigerians not to see themselves as different people,  yes we are highly diverse groups of people, yet we are one,’’ Jonathan said.

According to him, the nation has about 250 different language groups with so many ethnic nationalities and diverse ecological zones; from the environment to the pure Atlantic sea, to the coastal communities, and to the near desert in the North.

Jonathan said that all the diversity should be converted to “our strength,  because that is how God has created it”.

He said that diversity of the environment and or individuals was a major resource that could be exploited to strengthen our development.

“If we unite and work together as people with common destiny, surely Nigeria will get to where it wants to go, surely our hopes and dreams that by the year 2020 we play big at all levels of our economic development will be realised.

“But if we don’t unite and we continue to see our selves as pockets of individuals that exist on islands that have no relationships with others, our development will be doomed.

“We plead with all of us to join hands together, work together as a people with common destiny, a common aspiration so that we can get our target,’’ the president said.

The president noted that immediately after Independence, Nigeria sent out the first contingent of armed forces for peace-keeping.

Jonathan said that some people had paid the supreme price for the country to be peaceful for us to live in and move freely and these people need to be remembered and these are mainly the armed forces, the police and other security agencies.