53rd Anniversary of Nigeria
Nigeria@53. Ralphs Okey Nwosu
As a prelude, I would like to use some three events that happened last week to illustrate my perspectives on Nigeria as we celebrate yet another Independent anniversary. On Thursday last week I had the privilege of chairing a book lunch. The book titled Branded Fugitives was written by Austin Aire Oboh, a seasoned journalist; he chronicles his reflection of the era of forced slave trade when our ancestors were shipped in shackles overseas, and the new twist which he claimed started in the mid-1980 and continues till this day; a craze to migrate for “greener pastures” especially by Nigerians to Europe, the Americas, and Asia, and mirrors the untoward activities some of them subject themselves to while planning their getaway and when they got to their destination, as he wondered how often some of them became fugitives branded for death.
The attendance at this event was expectedly not grandeur; only a few of the political figures invited sent representatives, academics and civil society leaders were absent, unfortunately too, the esprit de corps expected of the media community was not manifested. Although a good number of journalists attended, but none of the top executives of the various media organizations sent even a representative. This says something about our society, we fail to identify and warm up to successes of a particular kind, because we seem cut up in the same mental frame which is prompting our young ones to engage in the deadly escapades that Mr Oboh identified in his book. I used the occasion however to inspire my media friends to learn to focus on the Local governments, and state governments, and stop over sensationalizing the interplay at the centre.
We are aware that on monthly basis 774 LGAs and 36states collect allocations from the federation account in spite of their internally generated revenues. To leave the activities of 810 chief executives to focus on one is a misnomer, a complete aberration; our nation will be better served if the media relearn and reinvent themselves. When we start to hone champions within our local communities, we are building quality enterprises, communities, cities, towns and states that would aggregate to herald the worthy nation we desire. We do not build a sky scrapper from top down. How each of the LGAs spends between one and half to three billion and each of the states spends 150 to 600 billion in annual budgets deserve our scrutiny much more for the good health of our country.
One of my other calls on the same day was The 29th Omolayole Management Lecture Series, in honour of one of the nation’s veterans and management experts Dr. Michael Omolayole. The theme of the lecture was Agricultural Innovation and Contemporary Investment Opportunities. The Guest Speaker
Gbenga Oyebode (MFR), the chairman of Okonu Oil Palm Company Plc , was at his best as he presented the glowing opportunities in the agricultural sector of our economy. It is worthy of note that Okonu Oil Palm Company Plc is one of the high flying agricultural corporation quoted and making waves in the Nigerian stock market. The young and future entrepreneurs of AIESEC Alumni of Nigeria and AIESEC University of Lagos and all of us among many others were well nourished with the richness of the presentation. Dr Omolayole in his speech harped on sensationalization of the recent disengagement of some ministers from President Goodluck Jonathan’s cabinet; he said that he was irked when he got news reports attributing the exercise to political witch hunt, but that when he checked the list and the Agriculture Minister and many others who he considers to be doing quality job were still on board he was sure it was no politics and discountenanced the report.
One of the things that was apparent at Commerce House in Victoria Island, the venue of the lecture, as I am sure happens in many places on daily bases, is that the virtues of our federal government is either underrepresented or are ill presented. Under this condition only well discerning persons can make good sense of the changes the present occupant in the villa is making; non autocratic and stately mannerism, freedom, fairness, equity, respect for all, due diligence, and responsibility that are democracy nourishing are all embedded in the National transformation concourse of the government. Same day/week major activities continued. Aka-Ikenga the Igbo elite think thank organization held a rainbow activity, and provided an edifying platform, and panacea forum for continuous healing process and the much needed meshing we need to whether the storm as a people of a united country. Bishop
Hassan Kukah used the occasion to highlight challenges facing our country and how we could all be part of the solution, in his Key note address “Nigeria, the challenges of Democracy. Governor Fashola of Lagos state used the occasion aptly to try to bring about healing within and amongst all Nigerians.
However, while all of these were going on, General Jeremiah Useni was busy granting a vexatious interview meant to diminish people and create more disharmonies. I am yet to understand what else the interview was meant to conjure, other than a heinous agenda. After over thirty years of holding sway in this country as military administrator, Minister of the Federal Republic at various times, and an “illustrious” military careerist, at seventy all he could fan is ember of hate, discord and division. This interview has been given more publicity in all the print media than all the other nation building and magnifying events that took place last week, including of course President Jonathan’s upping the ante for the country at the United Nations, and Wall Street. Something is definitely wrong; our media must identify its nation building roles and play it as very relevant stakeholders.
Yes, any anniversary is worth celebrating. It is a milestone, thus time to reflect, get together and appraise work done, cheer each other up, give commendations, reevaluate, fine-tune and possibly set new goals. Symbols, rituals, celebrations are integral parts of a culture, and in many ways a process of mending, alignment and nation building. We have many reasons to celebrate, fifty three years of independence, 14 years of uninterrupted democratic governance, and a very purposeful transformation program that has become the mantra for most government officials; Nigerians now expect transformation dividends as a benchmark for assessing quality of governance. I must tell you also, we now have a very disciplined and professional military high command that can fit well with their counterparts in any part of the world. One can say the same of the state securities and intelligence corps, and we all can testify that the police force is also in transition.
The process of transforming a decadent, and dictatorship led nation like Nigeria is extraordinarily difficult, certainly not a tea party. John Lenczowski, the founder and president of The Institute of World politics in Washington DC, said that it takes a special sixth sense which could only be developed through deep, rigorous and faithful commitment over time, to detect the elusive and the unquantifiable soul of a nation. I dare to say in this piece that the soul must be detected and healed for real transformation to take root. We certainly have diversity challenge; the dictatorship of the old operated with a domineering and warped paradigm, and orchestrated our diversity in a bad light.
Things are changing, the system is more democratic, and, justice, equity and value for dignity of all persons are starting to apply in the processes of governance in the country especially at the federal level. At the rate the federal system is changing, diversity benefits and richness will soon begin to outpace those challenges. But because we are too used to the old systems, understandably, due to the long time span we operated under that system, we do not seem to appreciate the successes that we have achieved. At independent anniversaries we must learn to celebrate even little successes and use those as a springboard for our future big aims. Therefore, I urge my media friends to get more patriotically involved; only your good work can generate the momentum to bring dissenters onboard.
Disintegration does not result from a thoughtful and resourceful leadership of a humble and mindful transformation agent. It takes time to heal the hurts of old, and catch up from the point things went awry. But we all who love this country must learn the skills and patience required to cross the Rubicon and explode to the benefit us all Nigerians and all mankind. As we mark yet another milestone, the 53rd independence Anniversary of our dear nation, may God help us to develop that special sixth sense to deeply understand ourselves and our nation so that we can collaborate with those He has put in charge especially President Goodluck Jonathan and members of his transformation team to find the common ground, bond and spirit to navigate towards the greater purpose of God in making our country the largest black nation in the world and endowing it with resource in material and men/women.
Be happy and be at peace with yourself, your people and our country. Happy Anniversary, as we celebrate our 53rd independence.
By Ralphs Okey Nwosu National Chairman African Democratic Congress ADC.
Chief Ralphs Okey Nwosu is a member of the AIESEC Lagos Board of Advisors.
As a prelude, I would like to use some three events that happened last week to illustrate my perspectives on Nigeria as we celebrate yet another Independent anniversary. On Thursday last week I had the privilege of chairing a book lunch. The book titled Branded Fugitives was written by Austin Aire Oboh, a seasoned journalist; he chronicles his reflection of the era of forced slave trade when our ancestors were shipped in shackles overseas, and the new twist which he claimed started in the mid-1980 and continues till this day; a craze to migrate for “greener pastures” especially by Nigerians to Europe, the Americas, and Asia, and mirrors the untoward activities some of them subject themselves to while planning their getaway and when they got to their destination, as he wondered how often some of them became fugitives branded for death.
The attendance at this event was expectedly not grandeur; only a few of the political figures invited sent representatives, academics and civil society leaders were absent, unfortunately too, the esprit de corps expected of the media community was not manifested. Although a good number of journalists attended, but none of the top executives of the various media organizations sent even a representative. This says something about our society, we fail to identify and warm up to successes of a particular kind, because we seem cut up in the same mental frame which is prompting our young ones to engage in the deadly escapades that Mr Oboh identified in his book. I used the occasion however to inspire my media friends to learn to focus on the Local governments, and state governments, and stop over sensationalizing the interplay at the centre.
We are aware that on monthly basis 774 LGAs and 36states collect allocations from the federation account in spite of their internally generated revenues. To leave the activities of 810 chief executives to focus on one is a misnomer, a complete aberration; our nation will be better served if the media relearn and reinvent themselves. When we start to hone champions within our local communities, we are building quality enterprises, communities, cities, towns and states that would aggregate to herald the worthy nation we desire. We do not build a sky scrapper from top down. How each of the LGAs spends between one and half to three billion and each of the states spends 150 to 600 billion in annual budgets deserve our scrutiny much more for the good health of our country.
One of my other calls on the same day was The 29th Omolayole Management Lecture Series, in honour of one of the nation’s veterans and management experts Dr. Michael Omolayole. The theme of the lecture was Agricultural Innovation and Contemporary Investment Opportunities. The Guest Speaker
Gbenga Oyebode (MFR), the chairman of Okonu Oil Palm Company Plc , was at his best as he presented the glowing opportunities in the agricultural sector of our economy. It is worthy of note that Okonu Oil Palm Company Plc is one of the high flying agricultural corporation quoted and making waves in the Nigerian stock market. The young and future entrepreneurs of AIESEC Alumni of Nigeria and AIESEC University of Lagos and all of us among many others were well nourished with the richness of the presentation. Dr Omolayole in his speech harped on sensationalization of the recent disengagement of some ministers from President Goodluck Jonathan’s cabinet; he said that he was irked when he got news reports attributing the exercise to political witch hunt, but that when he checked the list and the Agriculture Minister and many others who he considers to be doing quality job were still on board he was sure it was no politics and discountenanced the report.
One of the things that was apparent at Commerce House in Victoria Island, the venue of the lecture, as I am sure happens in many places on daily bases, is that the virtues of our federal government is either underrepresented or are ill presented. Under this condition only well discerning persons can make good sense of the changes the present occupant in the villa is making; non autocratic and stately mannerism, freedom, fairness, equity, respect for all, due diligence, and responsibility that are democracy nourishing are all embedded in the National transformation concourse of the government. Same day/week major activities continued. Aka-Ikenga the Igbo elite think thank organization held a rainbow activity, and provided an edifying platform, and panacea forum for continuous healing process and the much needed meshing we need to whether the storm as a people of a united country. Bishop
Hassan Kukah used the occasion to highlight challenges facing our country and how we could all be part of the solution, in his Key note address “Nigeria, the challenges of Democracy. Governor Fashola of Lagos state used the occasion aptly to try to bring about healing within and amongst all Nigerians.
However, while all of these were going on, General Jeremiah Useni was busy granting a vexatious interview meant to diminish people and create more disharmonies. I am yet to understand what else the interview was meant to conjure, other than a heinous agenda. After over thirty years of holding sway in this country as military administrator, Minister of the Federal Republic at various times, and an “illustrious” military careerist, at seventy all he could fan is ember of hate, discord and division. This interview has been given more publicity in all the print media than all the other nation building and magnifying events that took place last week, including of course President Jonathan’s upping the ante for the country at the United Nations, and Wall Street. Something is definitely wrong; our media must identify its nation building roles and play it as very relevant stakeholders.
Yes, any anniversary is worth celebrating. It is a milestone, thus time to reflect, get together and appraise work done, cheer each other up, give commendations, reevaluate, fine-tune and possibly set new goals. Symbols, rituals, celebrations are integral parts of a culture, and in many ways a process of mending, alignment and nation building. We have many reasons to celebrate, fifty three years of independence, 14 years of uninterrupted democratic governance, and a very purposeful transformation program that has become the mantra for most government officials; Nigerians now expect transformation dividends as a benchmark for assessing quality of governance. I must tell you also, we now have a very disciplined and professional military high command that can fit well with their counterparts in any part of the world. One can say the same of the state securities and intelligence corps, and we all can testify that the police force is also in transition.
The process of transforming a decadent, and dictatorship led nation like Nigeria is extraordinarily difficult, certainly not a tea party. John Lenczowski, the founder and president of The Institute of World politics in Washington DC, said that it takes a special sixth sense which could only be developed through deep, rigorous and faithful commitment over time, to detect the elusive and the unquantifiable soul of a nation. I dare to say in this piece that the soul must be detected and healed for real transformation to take root. We certainly have diversity challenge; the dictatorship of the old operated with a domineering and warped paradigm, and orchestrated our diversity in a bad light.
Things are changing, the system is more democratic, and, justice, equity and value for dignity of all persons are starting to apply in the processes of governance in the country especially at the federal level. At the rate the federal system is changing, diversity benefits and richness will soon begin to outpace those challenges. But because we are too used to the old systems, understandably, due to the long time span we operated under that system, we do not seem to appreciate the successes that we have achieved. At independent anniversaries we must learn to celebrate even little successes and use those as a springboard for our future big aims. Therefore, I urge my media friends to get more patriotically involved; only your good work can generate the momentum to bring dissenters onboard.
Disintegration does not result from a thoughtful and resourceful leadership of a humble and mindful transformation agent. It takes time to heal the hurts of old, and catch up from the point things went awry. But we all who love this country must learn the skills and patience required to cross the Rubicon and explode to the benefit us all Nigerians and all mankind. As we mark yet another milestone, the 53rd independence Anniversary of our dear nation, may God help us to develop that special sixth sense to deeply understand ourselves and our nation so that we can collaborate with those He has put in charge especially President Goodluck Jonathan and members of his transformation team to find the common ground, bond and spirit to navigate towards the greater purpose of God in making our country the largest black nation in the world and endowing it with resource in material and men/women.
Be happy and be at peace with yourself, your people and our country. Happy Anniversary, as we celebrate our 53rd independence.
By Ralphs Okey Nwosu National Chairman African Democratic Congress ADC.
Chief Ralphs Okey Nwosu is a member of the AIESEC Lagos Board of Advisors.
Edited
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