Legal icon, Aare Afe Babalola (SAN) has faulted calls by some individuals and groups for the balkanisation of Nigeria.
He said the large number of tribes, languages and growing population were no barriers to the development of the country.
Babalola spoke in Ado Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital yesterday at the First Africa-Asia Intercontinental Universities Conference (HYBRID) with the theme: “Building Bridges for Advancing the SDG: Enhancing Inter-University Scientific Collaboration between African and China” held at Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD) organised by the university in collaboration with Queen Modestus-led Centre for China-Africa Discourse Studies (CECADS).
The eminent lawyer, who urged those calling for the break-up of the country to drop the idea to always tolerate one another, said, “Most people believed that the size of China, the large number of tribes and languages were responsible for the underdevelopment. Many Nigerians also believed that the large number of tribes and languages is also responsible for our underdevelopment.
“However, China, which is like an elephant to an ordinary sheep or dog has today taken advantage of the population and made the country a huge success and one of the first three civilized countries in the world.
“Those who are advocating that Nigeria should be balkanized should learn from how China took advantage of its size, population and manpower to become one of the leading civilized and industrialised countries in the world.
“We must invest in industries and science and the people must bury tribalism and religious intolerance”.
“Fortunately, the Governor of the state is here. He is a lover of development. The University will certainly make recommendations to the Federal Government and hopefully the National Universities Commission which is ably represented here will also inform the federal government”.
At the event, Ekiti State Governor, Mr Biodun Oyebanji said, “There is no doubt that ABUAD living up to its aspiration or being a world class university with local and global recognition.’’
