Amid claims that over 120 Nigerians have been killed by bandits and other criminals since President Bola Tinubu’s inauguration on May 29, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), LoveNaija, has appealed to the citizens to embrace peaceful coexistence and stop the killing their neighbours.
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The group’s founder, Ikechukwu Daniel Okonweze, who stated this during its inaugural programme in Lagos, tagged: “LoveNaija Unity Walk and Concert” said the continued division along ethnic and religious lines across the country even after general elections were regrettable.
He said hatred had since resulted in bloodbaths premeditated by ethno -religious sentiments, saying the LoveNaija was designed to bring together the multiple tribes and languages living in Nigeria into one community in Lagos State.
Noting that politicians have sowed seeds of discord, mutual suspicion, ethnicity and unpatriotic language to create hatred among the populace, he said the NGO believes that preaching of love by all and sundry will be the tool to achieve peaceful coexistence.
Okonweze said the unity walk which commenced at the residence of the late MKO Abiola, took the participants comprising young men and women from all ethnic groups across the length of Toyin Street in Ikeja, was to build to walk as “one people that recognises our differences.
“If we come to walk and work together in unity with the level of our manpower and population, we have the advantage of being an economic power in the global world, which invariably appears as a matter of national urgency,” he said.
According to him, in the last 62 years of Independence as a nation, Nigeria had grappled with several challenges with mutual suspicion and ethnic patriotism that have deprived the country of reason, sense of justice and fairness.
Quadri Olaitan is a journalist and contributor to Freelanews.com, covering news, public affairs, and human-interest stories.
