…as ABC advocates cordial relationship between government and public

By Gabriel Olawale

Stakeholders and opinion leaders have admonished the Nigerian government and the citizenry to promote peace and unity for the country to attain its national development objective.

This was the core message at the nation building conference powered by the American Business Council, ABC, in partnership with the Nigerian Orientation Agency, NOA and The Nedola Initiative.

In his remark, the Director General of NOA, Dr. Garba Abari, said that a country as big, diverse, and massively endowed in human and material resources like Nigeria cannot afford not to have peace.

Abari, however, lamented that over the years the country has jettisoned all the standards put in place by founding fathers towards creating a functional environment.

He emphasised, “They work hard to set up a certain standard of governance and succeeded in creating a society that is working and functional but along the line, we messed it up.

“We lost focus in our governance process and procedure. We lost what was supposed to be the strength of our development.”

Speaking on the theme “The Imperative of Peace for a Successful Economy”, Abari highlighted some practical steps that can help Nigeria enjoy peace and return to the development track.

He recommended, “Government at all levels must encourage participatory and inclusive government. The country must be guided by rule of law because no society can make progress without respect for rule of law.

“Corporate organisations also need to play an active role in promoting peace because in any society that is experiencing insecurity; corporate organisation usually be the first to fall victim because no market will open, the company will not produce, the bank will not open. The cumulative effect of that is economic stagnation.”

Abari also encouraged citizens to be good ambassadors of themselves and the country so that Nigeria can be reckoned with again among communities of nations.

Corroborating his views, the former Registrar and CEO of Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria, APCON, Alhaji Garba Bello Kankarofi urged media practitioners to champion peace and unity in the country.

He admonished them to distance themselves from politicians who are committed to fuelling disunity and conflict. “Whether we like it or not, media need to play agenda-setting role and in doing this they must not be allowed to be used by any politician and mischief element who are bent on fuelling disunity and conflict.

“We all need to understand that nobody wins in a war-war scenario. Aside from government regulation, media practitioners also need to do self-regulation.”

On his part, the President, American Business Council, Dipo Faulkner said that there is a direct link between peace and economic prosperity and in that case, everybody must work together to sustain the peace in the country.

Faulner regretted that the current insecurity in Nigeria has cast a big shadow on investors confidence in the country which was evidence in continued decline of direct investment into the country.

“For instance, there is a decline in direct investment from 215 million in Q4 of 2020 to about 154 million in Q1 of 2021 and most recently when you look at the figure for Q2 is gone further than to 77 million.

“Also, from an economic impact survey carried out by the American Business Council on US companies also highlights the fact that insecurity is a major concern to US investors in Nigeria,” he added.

Faulner also expressed the Council’s commitment towards supporting initiatives geared towards promoting peace and harmony in Nigeria, “we are going to support ideas aimed at bridging the gap between government and public for the good of all.