Tejiri Ebikeme/Francis Sadhere
As Nigeria clocks 54 years today, the All Progressives Congress, APC candidate in the last Delta Central Senatorial bye-election, Olorogun O’Tega Emerhor, Chief Bobson Gbinje, Barrister Oghenejabor Ikimi and Dr. Charles Soeze have identified bad leadership and corruption as the bane of the Nigerian society, with a call on Nigerians to rise up and fight the ills of the society.
Speaking on the 54th Independence Anniversary, Emerhor described Nigeria as a country with great potentials but lamented that Nigerians were yet to get it right in the area of leadership.
He said; “Nigeria is a country of great potentials. But we are still not well organized; there is still much to be done as a nation and people. We need to change the leadership of this country and give it to capable hands that can fight corruption and put our resources into good use.”
He added; “As Nigerians, we must rise up and fight corruption and bad leadership squarely in this country. Let us put out nation on the path of progress, let us organize our country like other well organized countries of the world where things are working.”
On his part, Chief Bobson Gbinje of Mandate Against Poverty (MAP) lamented that “After 54 years of independence Nigeria still remains shipwrecked in the island of glom and doom, leadership doppelgangers, political gridlocks, socio-economic cliffhangers, tribal jingoism and utter planlessness. We have no functional hospitals, no roads, no affordable houses, no jobs and no food security, no light, no effective transport system, no water, no affordable education and no road map and viable blue print for strategic repositioning of our country, Nigeria. The statesman, Alfred Rewane captures the scenario thus ‘yesterday, we yearned for a better tomorrow. Today, we mourn the loss of a better yesterday. How sad”? Whither goeth Nigeria after 54 years of political independence?”
Executive Director of the Centre for the Vulnerable and the Underprivileged, (CENTREP), Barrister Oghenejabor Ikimi, also speaking on the 54th Independence anniversary said “We insist that Nigeria despite her great natural endowments both in mineral and human resources remains highly underdeveloped and is faced with numerous social challenges such as official corruption, unemployment, public infrastructural decay, insecurity, abject poverty and hunger amongst other ills.”
According to him, “We believe that Nigeria has the capacity to address and surmount her present challenges only if Nigerians themselves are ready to do so. For in the words of Buddah, “it is only when a student is ready, that the teacher will appear”. Unfortunately, Nigerians seem not to be prepared to address these challenges, talk less of surmounting them. Nigeria as a country is blessed with both natural and human resources, and is insulated from climatic calamities such as earthquakes, tremors, volcanoes e.t.c. When traversing the length and breathe of Nigeria, a curious visitor is bound to discover Nigeria as a country that is endowed with green vegetation and solid minerals apart from oil and gas that are in commercial quantities, thus Nigeria is naturally a great country with great potentials, but the people themselves have refused to be great.”
In his words also, “We make bold to say that the solution to our challenges do not lie in the Federal Government’s present Transformation Agenda or in any Agenda under any nomenclature nor does it lie in the manifesto of any political party, but same lies in good governance and respect for human rights. If we may ask, are the Nigerian electorates prepared for good governance? Our answer is in the negative, because many of the electorates are enslaved to their stomach. The Nigerian electorates therefore need to garner the necessary will to overcome the above short coming, because once the Nigerian electorates decide that they want good governance and they go to the polls with such an unwavering mentality, great leaders would begin to emerge from the polls Nationwide in the near future. Nigeria is a great country that requires great leaders to harness her abundant natural and human resources for the benefit of her teeming population in order to surmount her present challenges. We insist that Nigeria with her abundant wealth can lead the World and not only Africa in this 21st century, when she starts recycling great leaders from the polls.”
“We are not oblivious of the fact that, the United States of America led the World from the middle of last century because they produced great leaders from the polls who harnessed their natural resources through good governance for the benefit of Millions of Americans. Nigerians no doubt can do the same this century. We therefore call on Nigerians not to be deceived by self-seeking and restive politicians who are desperate for political power as they lack the intellectual capacity to pilot our Nation from her present challenges,” Barr. Ikimi added.
In the light of the foregoing, he said “we once again call on the Nigerian electorates to shun all entreaties from corrupt politicians and embrace good governance by voting selfless, credible and visionary leaders in the 2015 general polls, so that we as a people can surmount our present challenges and lead the World, as we have the potentials to do so.”
A public affairs analyst Charles Ikedikwa Soeze in his contribution stated that: “No doubt, corruption has been instrumental in disorienting us in this country; it has made us a laughing stock of the World. We have so many good people; we have resources, which should make us the envy of other nations in the World. In view of the mismanagement of resources, under-utilization of human resources and the syndrome of ‘get-rich-quick’ our country is in shamble. We have laws that must be enforced to punish the corrupt.”
He noted that at 54 securities of lives and properties are no longer guaranteed, even as the image of lawlessness is seen everywhere as Nigerians live in frustration, regret, dejection, hopelessness, misery, pains and sufferings.
“The deadly sect, Boko Haram can be translated in Igbo language to free us that is, Biko Haram meaning I beg leave me. Boko Haram should embrace peace and accept western education and not to see western education as a sin. All the things we enjoy are because of western education,” he added.
