A Professor at the University of Jos, Plateau State, Bashir Ajala, at the weekend said that the trouble with Nigeria is that “dealers”, instead of leaders, had been allowed to hold sway for a long time.

Ajala who spoke in Onitsha at the Cosmas Endowment Foundation 2018 Discussion on the National Question with the theme, “Individuality, nationality and citizenship” called on President Muhammadu Buhari to address the insecurity dilemma in the country to avert another war.

He expressed worry that “another war in the country won’t end quickly”, adding that Nigeria has been terribly unlucky to have “dealers” who have mortgaged the country’s future over the years.

He said: “We have a chain of satanic and greedy dealers who masquerade as leaders.

“We should raise the level of our patriotism. What we have in this country is despondent mentality. See Nigeria as your own, not as their own.

“If I must ask now: how many of you here have your PVCs? If you can’t vote, how do you change a bad leadership or retain a good one?”

Ajala urged Nigerians to obtain their PVCs, noting that 2019 voting pattern would determine the future of Nigeria’s coexistence.

While identifying overpopulation as the bane of the country’s growth and development, he called on Nigerians not to produce children they could not train saying that two children per nuclear family was most ideal for the nation.

He decried the rate at which the country’s population was growing describing it as catastrophic.

The Chairman of Comos Endowment Foundation, Omo Oba Sunmade Akin-Olugbade who read the communique of the group explained that the organisation which stood for the brotherhood of man also consist of people averse to ethnicity and corruption.

He further stressed that the day’s discussion on “National question – Nigeria in the 21st century”, was aimed at analysing the problems militating against speedy national growth and development and proffering meaningful solutions.

The communique read in part: “Government should avoid policy Summersaults and address the issue of internal and external security threats and deal with the current issue of 'herdsmen' and other politically related killings.

“Government should put an immediate stop to payments of salaries and other entitlements to ex-governors and legislators, and to desist from any interference with the judiciary.

“Nigeria should be redefined in the context of section 147 of the 1999 Constitution (As Amended) to enable citizenship by residency.

“The Federal Character principles and quota system should be abolished in all spheres of Nigeria life. Government must practice true federalism.”

The communique also called for the diversification of the economy in such a way that the people would be encouraged to participate in non-oil sectors as well as the urgent address of youth unemployment through industrial revolution programmes.