From Fred Itua, Abuja

Leaders from various ethnic nationalities, under the aegis of  National Interest Forum (NIF), have begun nationwide town hall meetings as part of moves to douse the growing tension in the country.

The forum made up of professional bodies, trade unions, students, farmers, artisans and religious bodies across the country decried the direction the country was heading to given various agitations threatening its unity, saying it was time to reverse the trend.

They said Nigeria had the potential and capacity to sustain the rest of Africa and beyond if “the big gap in our nation today which came about as a result of lack of trust, lack of unity, misunderstanding, personal and sectional interests among others are closed.”

National chairman of the forum, Gambo Lawan, who addressing a press conference in Abuja, yesterday, said some countries around the world had experienced challenges at one stage or another in their history, but that they held on to one thing which helped them overcome such challenges, which was “putting their nations first.”

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He called on political parties, religious and traditional rulers, professional bodies to join the movement in its bid  to restore peace and stability in the country.

“Nigeria as a great nation has the potential and capacity to sustain the rest of Africa and beyond. These are God’s blessings which no one, no tribe, no religion can lay claim to. And as such, we owe it a duty to sustain these God given gifts by uniting, understanding one another, building our nation and securing the future.

“As patriots, the National Interest Forum sees the need to close the big gap in our nation today which came about as a result of lack of trust, lack of unity, misunderstanding, personal and sectional interests among others. But the good news is that our nation has the capacity and potential to surmount all these challenges which are not peculiar to our nation. We, the members of National Interest Forum today call on all Nigerians, irrespective of creed, tribe or tongue to come out and join this movement in order to bring Nigerians together to have a united front determined to put our nation first, before self, tribe or religion, in everything we do. 

“We call on all political parties and leaders, religious and traditional rulers, professional bodies to join in this movement so that we can begin to re-orientate our people as we put our nation first.n In the coming days and weeks, we will be engaging our people through town hall meetings in all states of the federation in order to be sensitised on the need for everyone to put our nation first in all our dealings. We are glad to declare today, this hashtag #OurNation First. And we are optimistic that Nigeria will regain and remain the giant of Africa that it has been.”