Nigeria’s ride into the future is bumpy — Osuntokun

…Says governance approach must change

By Olayinka Ajayi

LAGOS — EMERITUS Professor of History and International Relations, Akinjide Osuntokun, yesterday, warned that Nigeria’s ride into the future would be bumpy, noting that the country needed changes to land smoothly.

Osuntokun, who made the assertion during the memorial leadership lecture of late Oduola Osuntokun, a former minister in the old Western Region between 1955 and 1966, stressed the need to change the nation’s governance approach.

He said: “I was in a group discussing and debating what our statement at the General Assembly plenary session in 1991 in New York should be, and we got to the point of discussing the prospect of Nigeria in the future, and somebody came up with the linguistic flourish that the Nigeria train was entering a long dark tunnel, the end of which was the light of an approaching train.

“The picture was so graphic that every time a Nigerian runs into innumerable difficulties, I remember asking whether the joke of 1991 was a prophetic prediction.

“There is the problem of overpopulation, poor nourishment of our children leading to mental retardation, the dead weight of religion, lack of planning or total absence of rationality, politics taking precedence over the economy and above all the Constitution, which is most of the time lifted from the books of other countries and planted in the environment in Nigeria, which most of the time is inappropriate if not hostile and unrelated to our political history and experience.

“As for our problem of ethnic antagonism, the situation seems to be getting worse because of economic competition for scarce resources, especially land in the crowded urban centres, and especially Lagos, where ownership of land by indigenous peoples is clashing with the modern ideas of ownership by purchase. We may never have all our preconditions totally in order, but we can solve the human problem of development and defence and put our people to work in exploring the country for hidden minerals and riches and expanding agricultural production.

“There are many reasons why we will not have a smooth ride to the future. If, however, we change our governance approach, there is a possibility that rather than crashing, we would run into turbulence, but we will land safely.”

Dignitaries who graced the inaugural lecture include 2023 Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party, LP, Mr Peter Obi; former Minister of Transport, Mr Rotimi Amaechi; former Ogun State Governor, Aremo Olusegun Osoba; wife of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Mrs Bola Obasanjo.

 former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Chief Bode George; former governor of Ekiti State, Mr Niyi Adebayo; and immediate past Ekiti State governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, among others.

The post Nigeria’s ride into the future is bumpy — Osuntokun appeared first on Vanguard News.