To those bringing diversion politics to my admiration of Chief Ayo Adebanjo, I have a line for you: go and get a life. Until we acknowledge fearless men like Chief Adebanjo who do not ask for contracts from the federal government, and sing their blind praises, we will not make progress.
At my age and God’s blessings, who becomes the president of Nigeria will not affect anything in my life. I mean, it is totally irrelevant to my career or future. But as someone who benefited immensely from Nigeria, I have a moral obligation to see that others get the benefits we got. Nine months to my graduation in FUTO, I was given jobs and jobs. Prof SOE Ogbogu, my HOD accepted jobs for me, in my absence; no interview!
One provided a car, a driver and a furnished 3-bedroom apartment. I went straight from school, after final year project defense on a Friday, and started work on a Monday. And that was coming from a country which basically paid my tuition under university scholar awards. Things used to be amazing; transformation for families.
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While in FUTO, a student union president was Onifade, a brilliant young man from one of the Southwest states. We all voted for him in a school that was largely dominated by Southeast students. I am not even sure that will be possible in FUTO these days! That is to tell you how far Nigeria has shifted.
And decades earlier, the mayor of Enugu was a Hausa man. According to records, they even voted for him twice because he was a great leader in the community. Today, instead of pushing for excellence, fairness and equity, it is all bigotry of tribalism with no core principles or consistency. The results are there and I am sure not many are celebrating them.
We will continue to push for a better Nigeria but do not lecture me with diversion politics. If you go back to the Lancaster House Conferences in London as Nigeria pushed for independence, and read the presentations, you would see what a united front could deliver. Zik, Awo, Bello, etc all figured out their strengths and they maximally deplored them to the British Colonial Secretary before the Queen’s ratification. They executed the project: independence.
Today, maybe, some would have sneaked out, diminishing the team’s strength!
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In matters of politics, everyone talking seems to be right or making sense, but time has a way of taking care of everything.
Even on elite social platform like LinkedIn, we still read amazing viewpoints and arguments that could still make you shiver when you go to rural areas and hinterlands and hear same, but we are talking about privileged people here who attended best schools, working in global companies, travelled wide, yet the mindset when it comes to politics is as primitive as it can be.
Why is it like that? Special interests! Until you grow above special interest, the chief cause of ethical blindness, you do not really qualify to discuss matters of public good, because you are already compromised.
Each of us may have our respective candidates, but while you do your best to turn logic on its head, just to project your candidate as the best, always remember to ask yourself this question: in matters of life and death, which candidate will you entrust your life to, such that any mediocre move – you are dead? If you can honestly queue behind your preferred candidate, I wish you well.
We have been here before, and if you are still not disappointed and embarrassed at Nigeria’s performance, then go ahead and scale the misery.
Indeed go and scale the madness