The Founding National Secretary of Alliance for Democracy (AD) and prominent pro-democracy activist, Dr. Udenta  Udenta, has canvassed  urgent inauguration of a post-partisan national platform that intersects the political, corporate, security and civil society spheres.

He also charged the political elite to rise above partisan interest so as to  rebuild trust among themselves and  reach patriotic consensus.

Udenta also appealed to them not to engage in an  unproductive finger-pointing blame game about the sources and drivers of  Nigeria’s precarious national condition,

In a statement he issued  on the release of 21 books written and  edited by him, Udenta, an expert in African literature, cultural studies and critical theory, stressed that he believes in the power of ideas as a driver of national development.

decided to bring out these books, which traverse the spheres of history, culture, democracy, governance, African literature and creative writing, and also encompass the works he wrote as a young teenager as well as his father’s works, because he believes in the power of ideas as a driver of national development.

He canvassed urgent stakeholders proactive response to the scourge of terrorism and armed militancy  in the country as well as kidnapping, illegal mining of precious stones and non-oil solid minerals.

“A growing absent centre of ideas and intellectual consciousness in Nigerian politics unlike what came to pass in the First Republic when powerful ideas were mainstreamed from the margin to become the compass that plotted the trajectory of a fully formed, authentic and coherent Federal state.

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We must recover this absent centre without delayin order to equip our political leaders with the knowledge with which to understand and tackle multiplying existential challenges that are threatening the survival of the nation state”. he said.,

Udenta, also stated that the current managers of state craft from political governance to the security sector with its complicated architecture- must take a peep into history and learn its lessons as well as being guided by precedents and tradition.

This involves listening to experts, most of who trained with massive state investment in terms of funding, and devising ways and means of building multi-stakeholder synergy and reducing turf wars among competing security platforms.

“One way to start acting is to examine the conclusions, recommendations and follow up governmental actions on the presidential retreat on the conflicts in the North Central/Benue Valley States in 2001.

He stressed that the emergence and rapid growth and expansion of ungoverned spaces across the nation and the steady abortion of the ideas and ideals of the nation’s founding fathers  are blind to partisan politial political colouration.

Udenta warned:  “the nation cannot afford the situation where, in the words of Okot P’Bitek, the pythons of poverty swallow the people and the buffaloes of hunger knock them down, while the political elite are engaged in mock heroic combat, eating each other’s’ liver”.