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The Director-General of the National Orientation Agency, Lanre Issa-Onilu, says Nigeria’s lingering crises are rooted in a long-standing absence of a shared national identity.
Issa-Onilu warned that the country continues to function as a collection of competing groups rather than a unified nation.
Speaking on Monday at the inauguration of a joint committee of the NOA and the National Universities Commission to embed national values in university curricula, the DG stated that Nigeria is paying the price for failing to build a collective sense of belonging since its independence.
According to him, recent conversations in the U.S. Congress about Nigeria’s instability underscore the consequences of ignoring identity formation for decades.
“The need for this has never been more pronounced than now that we have these challenges facing us in the country. At the centre of these challenges is the issue of a shared value system.
“I’m sure some of us have followed the recent debate in the US Congress on Nigeria, where the issue of a lack of national identity was emphasised as part of the reasons why Nigeria has found itself where we are today.
“So, it is important that we now take this issue very seriously. And it is something that this government should be commended for,” he said.
The National Values Charter is a social contract designed to promote integrity, unity, discipline, and accountability among citizens. It outlines citizens’ obligations to the nation and the government’s reciprocal commitments to the people.
Introduced as part of the Nigerian Identity Project, the Charter seeks to rebuild national trust, reshape public behaviour, and strengthen civic values across all sectors through continuous sensitisation, education, and public engagement.
Issa-Onilu lamented that most Nigerians still operate primarily from regional, ethnic, or religious identities rather than a common national ethos.
He argued that if deliberate nation-building efforts had begun 20 or 30 years earlier, Nigeria’s security, governance, and social cohesion issues would not be as severe.
The government, he said, is now attempting to recover lost ground through the Nigeria Identity Project and the newly introduced National Values Charter.
“If we had this 20, 30 years ago, perhaps our challenges would not be as serious as they are today.
“So, what we have today are people of different interests and different agendas, who found themselves within a territory called Nigeria, but who do not have any psychological connection to that country.
“And it’s because we don’t have a shared national identity. What we still have today is our group, our regional, ethnic, and religious group identity. So this is what this is all about.
“And one of the seven institutionalisation policies is to embed the value system, which is ensconced in what we call the National Values Charter, in the school curriculum,” Issa-Onilu stated.
The DG explained that the Charter is built around two pillars — “the Nigerian promise,” detailing what citizens should expect from their country, and “the citizen codes,” outlining the behaviours Nigerians are expected to embody.
He noted that Heritage and Citizenship Studies have already been made compulsory in primary and secondary schools nationwide, with universities now set to follow. The bigger goal, he said, is to nurture “citizens who carry Nigerian identity with honour and purpose,” not just graduates armed with certificates.
Meanwhile, the Assistant Chief Academic Planning Officer of the NUC’s Directorate of Academic Planning, Mrs Florence Onuoha, said the curriculum will be implemented through the General Studies Unit across universities. She urged the NOA DG to ensure the effective implementation of the curriculum through capacity-building training for lecturers.
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