Traditional rulers have been canvassing for formal roles in the polity. National integration also remains a burning topic in Nigeria even though Nigerians are more integrated than they think.
The Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) has done a simple conceptual arithmetic by bringing a foremost traditional ruler obviously to demonstrate the magic wand traditional rulers can wield in such a burning theme as national integration.
It may not be possible to know NIIA’s criteria for selecting the Etsu Nupe but his identity politics must be part of it. Discrimination on ethnic and religious grounds are not part of Alhaji Yahya Abubakar’s consciousness. Intervention happens to know this from an unimpeachable source who was discussing leading personalities at a road commissioning event which the Etsu Nupe attended about a month ago. He, therefore, has the moral as well as the empirical authority to address the topic.
This might thus be the NIIA Distinguished Lecture no members of the intelligentsia might wish to miss, not with the online access link NIIA has released to make the distant witnessing possible for those who will not be at Kofo Abayomi Street in Lagos on May 29th, 2024. The link from NIIA is https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3a2qr3Tja7lMiwnbmSLN3qxgQCekAFvkL8ZBHMLGWmOpg1%40thread.tacv2/1716828022892?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%2273662592-1795-430b-a5e6-9460b1931960%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%22a348aeb8-6d33-4861-b764-8ae78a45ac94%22%7d.
