The United States Consul General in Lagos, Jeffrey Hawkins, has said Nigeria will not disintegrate, despite the current socio-political problems it is facing.
Hawkins said this in Lagos, at a press conference on the premiere of the movie, Selma.
The US ambassador to Nigeria, James F. Entwistle, also dismissed the widely rumoured insinuations that the American government had predicted that Nigeria would split anytime from 2015.
According to Entwistle, Nigeria is not different from all other countries in the world with various degrees of challenges but that would not make them split. He noted that even the United States, had had its fair share of political challenges and that did not make it split.
He said Nigeria was a strong country that had not shown any sign of disintegration, wondering why people would predict such.
Also speaking at the moivie premiere, founder, House on The Rock church, Pastor Paul Adefarasin, admonished Nigerians to work towards peace and unity of the country.
“knowing that peace is not the absence of tension but the presence of justice, we must ensure that peace, justice and equity are enshrined in Nigeria,” he said.
He warned that the interest of Nigeria could not be determined along ethnic or religious lines, noting that the tragic deaths in parts of the country were “a harsh reminder that dialogue, peace and religious tolerance are crucial to our continued existence.”
Nigerian-born British actor, David Oyelowo, while speaking, acknowledged the timeliness of his movie to the current political experience in Nigeria. He said it was a thing of joy for him to make a movie that would speak to the need of the country’s social and political development.
“Nigeria is my country of birth and I spent seven years of my life here and we all must contribute our quota towards its development and the peaceful co-existence of the people living therein.”
He urged Nigerians to eschew violence and embrace peace, which he said was the central theme of the movie, Selma.