President Goodluck Jonathan on Thursday urged Nigerians not
to see themselves as
“Northern” or “Southern” citizens, but as people and a race bound by the same history and constitution.
“Northern” or “Southern” citizens, but as people and a race bound by the same history and constitution.
Mr.
Jonathan stated this in Abuja at the annual National Migration Dialogue
organised by the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and internally
Displaced Persons.
The
Vice-President, Namadi Sambo, who represented the President, called for an end
to the classification of Nigerians as “indigenes” or “non-indigenes” of any
particular state.
“We must
insist that in relating among ourselves as a nation, there are no Northern or
Southern citizens neither are there citizens of any particular state in the East
or in the West”, Mr. Sambo said on behalf of the President.
“We are
citizens of Nigeria, a people and a race bound by the same history and
constitution”, he said. “We must continue to insist and uphold our constitution
that guarantees the right of all Nigerians to live anywhere in Nigeria without
any fear of economic, political, religious, or social exclusion.
“Our
ethnic diversity, ideally, should be a source of strength, not weakness; a
country where people freely profess and practice their respective religious
beliefs anywhere within our national boundaries, without any fear of
discrimination. The future I see is of a nation where people are no longer
identified by their ethnic or religious affiliation but by the very virtue of
their Citizenship as Nigerians”, the president said.
According
to him, the Nigerian Constitution and the recommendations of the recently
concluded National Conference guarantee the right of every Nigerian to reside
anywhere in the country without discrimination.
While
acknowledging the role migration plays in national development, the president
noted that the country has the highest volume of international migrants, and
the largest remittances in sub-Saharan Africa worth $20.76 billion in 2013.
He,
therefore, stressed that Nigeria, while aiming to mitigate the negative impact
of migration, would continually to deploy strategies to encourage Nigerians in
the Diaspora to invest remittances in social infrastructure, human capital
development and other activities.
He stated
that his administration had made it a cardinal principle that Nigerians must be
treated humanely and with dignity in any country of their residence.
On
internally displaced persons, the President said he had directed that victims
must be given due care and maintenance without any form of social exclusion.
Mr.
Jonathan expressed the hope that the national migration dialogue would help
shape Nigeria’s national migratory orientation.
In her
remarks, the Federal Commissioner for Refugees, Hadiza Kangiwa, noted that
Nigeria was the first country in ECOWAS sub-region to institute the dialogue.
She said
the dialogue was conceived as a strategy for mainstreaming migration into the
post development agenda, and was also a derivation of the draft National
Migration Policy document.
According
to her, the objective of the dialogue is to provide a platform for debating the
impact and linkages between migration and development thereby shaping Nigeria’s
national migratory linkages.
She said
the dialogue would also provide opportunity for reviewing the various
operational challenges at the implementation level.
The
participants at the dialogue were drawn from the 36 States of the federation
and international development partners such as the International Organisation
for Migration.
Source:
Informationng
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