Former Vice Chancellor of Redeemers University, Professor Oyewale
Tomori has said that the enormous task of rebuilding Nigeria cannot be
left for President Muhammadu Buhari alone.
He stated this while delivering a keynote address at the public
presentation of a book titled: ‘Our Fathers’ Land, including the
reminiscences on the Nigerian Civil War’ written by Dr. Titus Okereke,
in Lagos.
Represented by Dr. Oladoye Odubanjo, he said: “Buhari alone cannot
turn this country around. Buhari alone cannot change this nation. For
Nigeria to change for the better, we must individually change for the
better.
We must be willing to obey and obedient to then laws of the land, if
we must enjoy the good of the land. We must get the true diagnosis of
our problems and stop deluding ourselves that we are a great nation. We
must face the reality that we rather bend, destroy and manipulate the
law than obey it.
We must realize that we lack the moral courage to enforce rules,
especially when the culprit belongs to our family or is from our tribe,
club or political group. We must provide answers to the question: what
did we do to end up in a country that remains unbound in freedom, peace
and unity? We must face the fact that cutting corners, avoiding
compliance with accepted norms of behaviour, settling for the second
best, and living only for today and not planning adequately for the
future are the “talents” that have brought our nation to the brink of
“failed statehood.”
Tomori who went down memory lane on how Nigeria got leadership wrong,
decried the deepening decadence and increasing general poor state of
affairs in the country.
According to him, “Since 1960, we have taken a holiday from positive
advancement and a vacation from progress. In the process, we arrested
our development. For 55 years, we condemned our future to serve time in
the maximum Kirikiri prison of underdevelopment. During that period, we
came to the brink of disintegration; we worked at shredding our tribes
apart employing our twisted and forked tongues.
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