Former Nigerian High Commissioner to Canada and Mexico, Ambassador Iyorwuese Hagher, has called on the federal government to commence the process of national reconciliation and healing to create national unity to make Nigeria a great nation.
Hagher made the call in his goodwill message during an annual SONTA conference, held at Benue state University, Makurdi.
He urged them to be in the vanguard to make Nigeria great as the creative artists of the United States, Japan and India did and continue to do so.
According to him, instead of pulling up the tribal mentality through education of the average citizens, we are pulling ourselves down into the rotten sewers of diabolical rituals, archaic customs, and horrific disdain for human life.
He said, “I cannot conclude this address without calling on the Federal Government to commence the process of national reconciliation and healing to create national unity to make Nigeria a great nation.
“We have all hurt each other deeply in pervasive ways. The nation bleeds and needs a new Truths and Reconciliations Commissions and Committees at local state and national levels, so that we can live in peace again after we have repented of our past sinful ways and forgiven one another. We need to let go of our hurts, for there is no life without forgiveness.
“This is the task that all of you can and should undertake as theatre artists because you have all been trained to imagine and create a better Nigeria. We should seriously heed the warning of Albert Einstein that: “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” You are the new thinking we have all been waiting for.
“My grouse is with writers who have failed to write for Nigeria and Nigeria’s greatness, but are merely megaphones of tribal anthropology, promoting tribal consciousness, and “my tribe is better than your tribe” mentality. Wholesale plays and novels that continue to seek refuge in the tribal, take public space as merely tribal promotion instruments,” he added. To be a great nation, Hagher said we must first of all, have national pride, and consciously, intentionally decide to be great.
“We need to make Nigeria a nation and not just merely a collection of tribes as we have now. We have the tools to do so, if only we can pull off the burning toga of tribalism tied on our backs,” he said.
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