Ethnicity, religion must play no role in crucial decisions on nation building

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has admonished Nigerian professionals to avoid ethnicity and religion in making crucial decisions for the development of the country.

This was made known on Monday by Osinbajo in Abuja during the maiden edition of the All Progressives Congress (APC) professional forum conference.

The vice-president said there is a need for Nigerian professionals to embrace politics that is driven by merit rather than “baseless considerations”.

“So, one of the major advantages to our communities of having professionals in politics is lost if we do not recognise that our role as merit-driven persons must be to fight the temptation of ethnic, religious and other parochial considerations in making crucial decisions for the development of our nation,” he said.

“There is no point having professionals in politics if these professionals are driven by ethnic, religious and other parochial considerations because the whole point of professionalism is that you are defined by merit, you are defined by your professional acumen.

“Nobody would place their lives in the hands of an incompetent doctor because they share the same faith or continue to patronise a dangerously inept mechanic because they belong to the same tribe.

“If someone told me, for example, that the pilot who is to fly the plane that I’m to go in is not a very good pilot, but he’s from Ikenne, my hometown, I certainly won’t go in that plane.”

The vice-president also said that “true progress is about reimagining our collective circumstances and creating an environment that enables prosperity for us all. This is a challenge for us as professionals”.

He added: “To this end, we must see ourselves as stewards of the common good, who have been entrusted with the privilege of managing the collective destiny of our people for an allotted time. And we must do so with a conscience and to the best of our abilities.”