 and to commend the board and management of the leadership group and their collaborators for putting together a forum for dialogue in the tradition established by the esteemed founder, beloved departed brother and colleague Sam and Isaiah. It's a privilege indeed to join you in honouring the memory of that great patriot and innovator. The excellencies we are meeting today against the backdrop of economic adversity, inflamed fault lines and social resentments. We already know of course of the insurgencies and the northeast, kidnappings and terrorist acts in the northwest and threats of secession in parts of the country. In the light of all these challenges the theme of this conference, national and regional insecurity, the role of political and non-political actors in stabilization and consensus building is clearly an inspired one. In considering the theme of this event it's worth noting that often when we explore the concepts of national and regional security there is a tendency to anchor the discourse around the machinations and intrigues of externally generated vulnerabilities and external adversaries. So we argue often that the problem of state fragility in Africa is on account of the colonial origins of her nation states. The notion for example that Nigeria is a hastily and arbitrarily cobbled together patchwork of mutually alienated kingdoms and as a result it has remained plagued by fundamental challenges rooted in its founding. Now this is a popular view but of course it's not the whole truth. It is not even nearly the entire truth. Indeed it is my view that the colonial beginnings of African nation states does not constitute the sort of immutable obstacle to nation building that it is frequently made out to be. After all colonialism itself was a historical global phenomenon that spawned nation states everywhere across the world from Europe and Africa to Asia to North America and South America and we have examples of many such nations that are successful colonial origins are therefore not necessarily predictors of national prosperity or state failure. In any case there's a lot of scholarship and research that shows that our ethnic nations or nationalities share a long history of trade, of diplomacy, of migration and conflict all of which ensured that by the time the colonialists arrived our ethnic nationalities were not strangers to each other and even then they were not strangers to themselves and most certainly they were not strangers many many decades and almost centuries after. The truth therefore and it seems to me that the external reasons that we frequently cite for our problems those reasons that we frequently give for the problems of African states and in particular Nigeria cannot thrive without severe internal weaknesses in our society and I venture to say that the chief weakness the chief weakness that we have is a human one our elite our political economic and religious elite an elite that has so far proved to be socially irresponsible that is one which either by selfishness negligence or ignorance or a lack of self-awareness has so far been unable to build the institutions and more importantly the social and political consensus upon which a just and orderly society can start and because dominance must be premised on some form of consensus the elite depend on a dubious one the promotion of tribal and religious false lies or legitimacy so where are we today on a nationwide and region wide scale we are seeing challenges to national order driven by profound and pervasive sense of exclusion and marginalization and I don't speak of ethnic or religious marginalization which is really another elite dog whisper to acquire more for themselves or for ourselves in the context for political boots I speak of a division between the have nots who have no hope and the haves who seem to have it all so the attacks we see on law and order are themselves symptomatic and they are driven by emergent critiques of the fabric of order itself these critiques are manifesting as insurrections and insurgencies along various axes of identity these rejections of formal institutions may be driven by conceptions of religious obligations ethnic identities and generational antipathies but that is only superficial what they have in common is that there are patterns of solidarity of those who have no stake in an orderly society because such a society appears to offer them nothing and so they are in fundamental violent and implacable opposition to a system that appears to favor only a few so the recognition that the system is not working optimally for many of our people must inspire a broad-based movement for reform that works to recalibrate and present order and attune it more to the aspirations of the people to be sure the cost of reforming the system is considerably less than the cost of letting the system be destroyed in the hope that it can somehow be rebuilt from scratch that is the risk we cannot afford to take as a nation so how do we mediate these conflicts because if you recall there was a subject of this discussion is how to mediate the conflicts first is consensus building consensus building is is essentially about finding an acceptable middle ground among contesting options to the resolution of several issues and there are several issues that need to be resolved but we must find middle ground in several of these issues that questions the questions of of state legitimacy the questions of state autonomy many believe that there should be greater control from the states and local governments and there are all sorts of other issues but we're not going to be able to go into all of those today otherwise we'll be here for too long the second is mediating elite competition and conflict again will not delve into that in any great detail so what do we do there is no doubt that our country is going through a time trial and testing many of our people are dealing with adversity on several fronts it's understandable for discontent to emerge and inspire agitation in a democracy agitation the act of making our voices heard in respect of our concerns is entirely legitimate what is profoundly problematic is when we employ destructive and illicit means in pursuing agitation it's also understandable that we may find that some of these agitations in fact resonate with us we may consider them legitimate causes and identify with them as such however the temptation is that our sympathy with legitimate causes blinds us sometimes to the destructive and illegitimate means employed by those that pursue those causes this is a temptation that we must resist i'll be the first to admit and i'm sure that many of us would admit that our system is not perfect but it does prescribe the ways in which discontent can be channeled through constitutionally guaranteed rights to associate to protest and to express ourselves change is possible through the system but only if we engage it rather than destroy it thus while the current system is not perfect it can only be improved as more of our people engage it in a country as diverse as ours the diversity of opinions and persuasions is not only to be expected we must welcome it the aim of our national conversation should be to promote a consensus for progress rather than to promote discord and disharmony our national union itself was forged through dialogue and negotiation as our founding fathers traded compromises in the process of making a country over the years our union has been renewed through dialogue we must be committed to continuing this tradition of renewing our nation through the tried and tested means of consolation of compromise of consensus discernment today discernment discernment requires us all to recognize the various faces and guises of violence and extremism it is to recognize the agents of hatred and to call them by their proper names even when they appear to speak the same language as we do or seem to worship as we do to be clear in calling for compromise and consensus I certainly do not mean that our people should be loved into a false sense or a passive acceptance of whatever they find unacceptable I mean that their discontent and artist content and energy can be channeled towards constructive or positive action for instance communities can be mobilized to participate more fully in civil life and drive movements that seek greater accountability across all sectors of government while there's a need to come while there is today a contest for the future and a battle for the soul of this nation the weapons of our warfare are necessarily different the tools with which we will build a new country and the weapons with which we will fight for our prosperity are of a different order it was Reverend Martin Luther King who said and I quote destructive means cannot bring about constructive events destructive means cannot bring about constructive events we we contend for the soul of our country by promoting civilized values in particular we must uphold a culture of life the affirmation of the value of human life we cannot accept unlawful violence in any guise even by those who claim to be using it in response to violence we need an intergenerational ecumenical and pan Nigerian coalition willing to uphold the value and sanctity of life above and beyond all causes and all differences our history teaches that whenever people have succumbed to the temptation to use fear hatred and violence to achieve their ends they have unleashed destructive forces upon our communities with great human and material costs a truly just cause can only be pursued by using just means a truly noble cause cannot be attained by global methods whatever is gained by violating and oppressing others simply cannot last let me be clear the principal role of the state as far as guaranteeing peace and order is unimpeachable our constitution enshrines the moral imperative of the state by asserting that the security and welfare of the Nigerian people shall be the primary purpose of government this is the inescapable duty of all of us that are elected to lead and it is one for which we will be held to account however the practical fulfillment of this mandate requires partnerships it requires that partnerships be forged between the state and civil society as well as between political and non-political actors so what should the elite do and what responsibility does the elite bear the task before us is that of renewing the social contract creating more inclusive institutions growing the economy and generating opportunities for our population two realizations are especially poignant to the point the first is that this task cannot be accomplished in a climate of socio-political instability secondly no project of social renewal and transformation can succeed without the involvement and indeed the leadership of the elite the operative principle is a french expression no bless oblige which in english simply means nobility obligates it will convey the idea that because we are the elite because certain people religious economic economic leaders political leaders social leaders because they belong to an elite that's there is a responsibility that comes with being of that status that responsibility is one that we have no choice but to fulfill it proposes that the advantage of education position wealth especially in a poor society comes with the responsibility to think to develop and implement the big ideas that would create opportunities and livelihood for the majority the highest office and duty of the elite is sacrifice sacrifice and more sacrifice it means that we must be prepared to tell our constituencies the truth even if it hurts even if it hurts our political fortunes or our popularity we must be able to say to the young men and women who for example say that secession is the only way or that we should break into little nations and that that is the only way we must be able to say to them that that is the way of extinction not development we must as religious leaders be able to tell our adherents people we must be able to tell those who worship the way we worship that people of other religions are not their enemies that they are in fact their brothers and sisters and we must not allow those who will benefit by division and strike to tell them differently some of those things may not sound popular especially in an atmosphere where everyone feels that they are right about whatever it is of whatever views they hold voices the responsibility of the elite to speak the truth even where the truth does not sound popular we have received much from Nigeria we are disproportionately beneficiaries of opportunities of resources of advantages of relationships and other assets that are only possible because we're in Nigeria it is only right that we adopt a sensibility that guides us in giving back to this country that has empowered us so much and to investigate in ways that offer returns broader than just our own profit those of us in this conference those of us who are seated here are by virtue of pedigree and status members of a highly privileged minority the contrast between our exceptional circumstances and the material conditions of the majority of our people imposes a moral obligation on us to work for the common good towards a society that works for all by spreading the circle of opportunity in times of crisis the elite must broaden its horizons beyond their specific disciplines and sectors accordingly business leaders understand that it's not enough to focus on making profits businesses need a healthy society within which to operate and to make profit this is why there are now such concepts as corporate social responsibility and good citizen good corporate citizenship it is not at all paradoxical that some of the biggest charities in the world were founded by the greatest capitalists legal practitioners as a distinct elite must understand that the imperative of transformative leadership in the legal sector today calls for the bar and the bench to insist on the integrity of our system of justice to insist on the speed of dispensation of cases and to call out anyone who compromises the system the media elite must recognize that they have a responsibility to exercise discernment in their deployment of their platforms and must reflect upon whether they are amplifying the most insensitive the most intemperate the most incendiary voices in our midst while marginalizing the voices of reason the political elite must accept through policies and actions that the purpose of power is to better the lives of those we sell and to give the young great hope for the future once we put on the lens of social responsibility different higher imperatives coming to play this is what transformational elitism looks like so i conclude that in times of crisis we learn and we learn lessons in solidarity and the value of pulling together the old rigid dichotomies between the state the market and civil society no longer apply we recognize that the path to the future will be paved by consolidating the interdependence of these sectors this is why we need a new ethic of collaboration that brings together elements from the public sector from communities from corporations from voluntary associations from faith groups and all these groups must jointly work on solutions that we can scale up from the local to the national space and the elite is integral to this process finally in times of adversity societies buffeted by uncertainty and anxiety are tempted to drift towards the voices that appeal to our DACA impulses to those that traffic in fear and despair and division the elites such as are gathered here today must counter such voices by inspiring faith creative optimism and solidarity i personally remain on yielding in my belief that we will prevail over adversity by the strength of our togetherness the present moment is crying out for leaders that can bring our people together that can heal the rifts between communities and build bridges across divides of religion of politics and of and of all of the other social consequences that make such a difference to everyone this too is perhaps the most urgent imperative of transformational elitism today i'd like to congratulate all of the distinguished our deans of the two to 2020 leadership conference and to congratulate you all and to say that the responsibility that comes with leadership lies squarely upon your shoulders especially those of you who will be receiving these very coveted prizes today thank you very much and thank you for this