Ufuk Dialogue 10th Anniversary Dinner On 20/01/2022

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Video Transcript

REMARKS BY HIS EXCELLENCY, PROF. YEMI OSINBAJO, SAN, GCON, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA AT THE UFUK DIALOGUE 10TH ANNIVERSARY DINNER ON THE 20TH OF JANUARY, 2022

 

PROTOCOLS

 

Thank you for the very kind invitation to you at this 10th Anniversary Dinner and I bring you the warm greetings and felicitations of the President, President Muhammadu Buhari, who also wishes the Ufuk Dialogue a very happy 10th Anniversary.

 

Congratulations to the Ufuk Dialogue Foundation on ten years of significance and impact. Your work in promoting unity and peace through inclusive dialogue has been nothing short of priceless.

 

The impact of platforms like this, built on an honest commitment to fostering peace and productive nationhood, can easily be missed by the imperceptive. But they constitute the foundational principles upon which all great civilizations are built.

 

Principles such as dialogue, consensus, mutual understanding and respect, a celebration of the diverse perspectives and cultures that translates into a solid, colourful whole. And this kind of diversity in many ways is what constitutes the beauty and magic of Nigeria.

 

It is not hard to imagine how much more of a force we can be when we fully harness the opportunities that our multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, and multi-religious makeup present to us. And this is where your work in Ufuk Dialogue, in advocating and espousing dialogue and creating bridge-building platforms and opportunities, has proved its importance. We wholeheartedly commend you.

 

At the root of what we consider to be the resilience of Nigeria as an entity, and perhaps Nigerians as a people is a history of constant negotiations. We have not always gotten it right, but we have never stopped talking, we have never stopped reaching across our subtle and not so subtle divides, to forge an understanding of each other and to fashion out evolving systems for our mutual existence.

 

We have done this past an unfortunate civil war and through several iterations of our republic. And we will and must continue to do this.

 

It is true that in the last two decades, we have faced severe threats to our mutual co-existence; violent extremism in the North has resulted in the Northeast, in particular, has resulted in the destruction and the unfortunate loss of lives of many.

 

Banditry and kidnappings have traumatized families and rattled States in parts of the country. Also, we have seen separatist agitations especially in parts of the Southeast of Nigeria have affected many and intermittently slowed down economic activities in some parts of the region.

 

Our government, led by Mr. President, is frontally confronting these security challenges and will relentlessly continue to do so, fully aware of their socio-economic and psychological impact on Nigerians everywhere. And we Nigerians, and we as Nigeria will surely prevail!

 

But there are no simple solutions, as we effectively bring the full power of government to bear in tackling insecurity and its threats to our collective existence, we must also mind some of the underlying issues that give rise to them.

 

In many instances, these are factors of sheer greed and naked criminality. Yes, there are also genuine grievances, honest suspicions and fears, feelings of exclusion and marginalization, misunderstandings and differences of opinion, all of which can only be resolved to the benefit of the whole, through sustained dialogue and negotiations.

 

The fact remains that nationhood is a hard-won endeavor that requires the sincere efforts of leaders who are willing to sacrifice some of their personal interests to achieve a consensus that is a win-win for all. Leaders not only from within government but across every sphere of influence.

 

We need great personal examples along religious and ethnic lines more than ever before. Men and women of influence who are willing to go one step ahead of the rhetoric to demonstrate the true meaning of brotherhood, and why the common humanity that binds us as Nigerians is greater than the differences that mark us as unique.

 

Leaders who stoke our fears and suspicions of one another as a means of advancing their own personal quests for power and private enrichment are all around us. This unfortunately has only served to perpetuate a sense that the leadership elite, including some social and religious leaders, seek only their own interests. But the truth is that though poverty in my language might be different from yours, its effects are agnostic:  hunger respects neither tribe, religion nor political affiliation.

 

Even though we sometimes speak of the importance of dialogue and unity in terms of necessary compromise, the truth is, living and working together as one people is also a matter of self-interest because we stand to gain more from it, we stand to gain more from being together than otherwise.

 

Achieving sustained and productive nationhood gives us all access to each other’s strengths, just as it covers for our weaknesses.

 

Beyond the finite resources that we find beneath our soils are infinite amounts of talent spread across our country.

 

Even as we speak the Nigerian football team, the Super Eagles, are doing us proud in Cameroon, outclassing their opponents one match at a time at the ongoing Nations Cup.

 

Making up the team are Nigerians from across ethnic lines and religions. The awe-inspiring dribble from the Igbo man, the through-pass from the Hausa player, the goal by the maverick Itsekiri guy or the striker of Yoruba origin, all count for Nigeria. We all count for Nigeria.

 

No matter where we come from, what faith we profess, or what language we speak, we have Nigeria in us. We are Nigeria and indeed, Nigeria is us.

 

Only recently, the world lost a global icon – Archbishop Desmond Tutu; an exemplary leader who in a time of great reckoning, set an inspiring example of forgiveness, tolerance, and peaceful co-existence for the rest of the world. But Archbishop Tutu’s lasting legacy is the credo of Ubuntu: the notion that a person is a person through other people. That My humanity is tied to yours.

 

As the great Archbishop so beautifully rendered it in his own words, “We think of ourselves far too frequently as just individuals, separated from one another, whereas you are connected and what you do affects the whole world. When you do well, it spreads out, it is for the whole of humanity.”

 

Variety and diversity are to be enjoyed not weaponized. It is the wisdom of unity that makes the different sounds and tones symphony, and not chaos. Let the symphony become louder!

 

Let me again congratulate the Ufuk Dialogue Foundation on your 10th Anniversary and wish you greater success in the years to come.

 

Thank you everyone for listening and God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.