A Professor of Political Science at the Nasarawa State University, Professor Jideofor Adibe has said the idea that Nigeria has never been as divided as it is under President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration is not evidence-based.
Professor Adibe stated this in an interview on Channels Television while speaking on the journey of Nigeria at 62 under the current administration.
He said Buhari’s inability to manage the country’s diversity was the reason some people say Nigeria has never been as divided as before.
The university don expressed optimism that Nigeria will get it right despite the current challenges.
“In terms of managing diversity, I’m not sure the president has done better than he has done and that’s the reason why some people are saying we’ve not been as divided as before. We’ve always had problems in our nation-building process. The president has not been able to reverse that. But as I said, I’m not sure it is evidence-based to say that we’ve never been as divided as before,” he said.
Professor Adibe further noted, “Another thing that is happening is, we are emerging from what people call a transitional democracy. Transitional democracies are societies that are emerging from a prolonged period of authoritarianism.
“So you have a lot of bottled-up feelings that are unleashed onto the political space. And because these are unleashed onto the political space in the short to medium terms they tend to aggravate the structures of conflict in the society. This is probably what we’re witnessing now, rather than the tendency to say that we’ve never been as divided as before.
“Something I observed is that despite all these things, as I said, there’s a lot of optimism, underlying optimism that despite the current challenges, Nigeria will get it right at a point.”
The political science professor scored the current administration high in infrastructural developments across the country.
He also said the president has performed well in using his diplomacy in securing international positions for Nigerians in international institutions.
“Yes, the president has done a lot of things. There is no government, even if there’s no government at all, by the law of unintended consequence some things would have been done well.
“For example, the administration has done relatively well in terms of leaving its infrastructure footprints across the country. It has also done relatively well in using personal diplomacy to secure international good positions for Nigerians in respected international institutions like the World Trade Organization, African Development Bank, and Afreximbank. The government has done well there.”
