From former military President, Ibrahim
Babangida came a shocker yesterday when he revealed that Lord Lugard
created Nigeria to last for only a 100 years.
The self acclaimed evil genius said this
in Lagos yesterday at the presentation of 2 books in honor of his
foreign affairs minister, Bolaji Akinyemi.
“We should engage these predictions on an intellectual level, testing whether the facts justify the conclusions.
“But on a practical and public policy
level, we must import honesty into our public policy assessment. First,
we must identify the problems that need to be addressed. Secondly, we
must address these problems honestly. Thirdly, we must identify the most
current and the most appropriate mechanism for addressing these issues.
“Let me make this clear. My position is
not dictated by the fact that foreigners are making these predictions.
We don’t even need foreigner sources as a reference point. The Nigerian
media is awash with alarming news about our problems.
“My position is dictated by my
conviction that Nigeria is precious enough to be saved. It deserves an
investment of our time and resources to make Project Nigeria a success.
But the starting point has to be an admission that we need to fix
things.”
Babangida also stated that mistakes of
past administrations are putting pressure on the country today though he
refused to identify the mistakes or the past administrations that made
them.
Said he “Some of the mistakes of the
past have now come to haunt us. But let me make one thing clear. Not all
these mistakes were made out of callousness or bad faith or malice.
“Most people in office do their best.
They act to the best of their ability. Unless we think that our leaders
have divine ability, we have to admit that even with all the best of
their abilities and even with the best faith and with the best of all
intentions, human beings will still make mistakes,”
In his own comments, ProfessorAkinyemi
called for a national dialogue saying “Zoning, federal character,
rotation, marginalisation of the brightest and the best will only make
the much prophesied collapse of Nigeria in 2014 a self- fulfilling
prophecy. We cannot build a nation on a system that takes care of the
few while condemning the many to penury. A system that cannot take care
of the many that are poor cannot save the few who are rich."
NaijaPundit
No comments:
Post a Comment