- Tinubu challenges citizens to claim their destiny
Former Chief Executive Officer of the Nigeria Economic Summit Group (NESG), Professor Anya O. Anya believes that the country’s problems have gone beyond what the present political elite, including the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) can address.
Anya, who was the guest speaker at The Niche Newspaper’s Annual Lecture themed ‘Business and Accountable Governance: The Obligation of Leadership’ in Lagos, wondered where the country could begin to resolve its numerous problems, which seem insurmountable.
“Where can we begin? We must start from the recognition that the current situation is beyond the capacity of our political elite; it is beyond the capacity of APC as a party and government. It is beyond the capacity of the PDP or indeed any of the multitude of parties,” he said.
Lamenting that the failure in the public sector has seeped through the political space and corrupted the politics and management of the society with a culture of greed, mediocrity and self-aggrandizement as reward for political engagement, the don suggested the institution of a new programme of national regeneration, restoration and renewal. He suggested mass mobilisation beyond political parties, ethnicity and other diversities if the current challenges must be overcome.
“In this effort, the country must be committed to non-violent communication,” he added. In his remarks, the former Nigerian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Dr. Christopher Kolade, said the country must at this point resolve to recognise its youths doing exploits.
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According to him, there is a lot of active talents among the youths, “what we are not giving them is recognition.”National leader of APC, Bola Tinubu, challenged Nigerians to take their destiny in their hands.
“The fortune of any society is in the hands of the people. They have the responsibility to compel the elite to do what is right; otherwise, history has shown that the elite would always engage the government to do what is favourable to themselves alone if left unchecked,” he said.
Represented by former Lagos State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Dele Alake, he lamented that Nigerians had not been so blessed with leaders with vision, knowledge and political will since independence. He, however, noted that the current political setting would not allow such visionary leaders to emerge.
Former Editor of The Guardian, Mr. Martin Oloja, tasked Nigerians to begin to impress it on the governors and all elective representatives to consider restructuring the country. On his part, the regional representative of Ford Foundation Mr. Innocent Chukwuma raised the alarm that the country had been thrown back to the pre-1999 era with the turn of events.
