NIGERIA: ON THE MARCH AGAIN (part 1)

On the march again,

Looking for Mr. President,

On the march again,

M.K.O is our man o!

That was a Presidential campaign jingle 13 years ago when Nigeria was preparing for what is reputed as the most free and fair election in the history of Nigeria’s democratic experiment. That election never amounted to anything; the results never saw the light of day. The annulment of that election plunged Nigeria into a mire of socio-political and economic crises. It took us another 6 years after that before we could have something close to an election again. We had an election in 1999 and again in 2003, now we are preparing for the third consecutive democratic election in 2007, the first of its kind in Nigeria’s history (we’ve never had 3 elections back-to-back without military intervention).

Saturday 19^th August remains a very interesting day in my memory. I set out from home that day to witness two of my friends getting married to each other. Lola Ajose got married to Seun Olusola Ogunyale. Congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Seun Olusola.

After that, a friend and brother asked me to come with him to a meeting that promised to be interesting. It was to be a meeting conveyed by Nigeria’s Professional and Business elite, howbeit a political forum. I went with him to AGIP Recital Hall, MUSON Centre, Onikan, Lagos for THE NATIONAL VILLAGE SQUARE MEETING. The meeting was organized by a group called the Restoration Group. In attendance were a cream of Nigeria’s Professional and business elites, Youths and Politicians among whom was Prof Pat Utomi who gave a keynote address. Other speakers include Comrade Adams Oshiomole (Nigeria Labour Congress President), Chris Anyanwu, Dr Ayo Ighodaro, Mr. Teco Benson and a host of others.

In his keynote address, Prof. Pat Utomi identified the lack of Accountability Politics as the bane of Nigeria's political system. He encouraged that Business executives, Professionals, Youths and indeed the good people of Nigeria should move into the mainstream of Nigeria’s politics as we approach another election year. He said those who fear to walk in murky waters may get carried away by mudslides, using the case studies of Liberia and Cote d`Ivoire where good people stayed away from politics and watched their countries disintegrate before their very eyes. He opined that people of good reputation should not sit and watch the system go from bad and worse.

Chris Anyanwu in her speech called for the proper education of the Nigerian Youth. In her words “our youths need to be educated, not just acquiring degrees”. She campaigned for an educational system that would make the average Nigerian youth be at par with his peers from other developed countries of the world. She also emphasized that if we’re smart enough to do things that have given our country its bad image (419, internet crimes etc), then we’re smart enough to do a lot of positive things to develop Nigeria.

Comrade Adams Oshiomole in his speech opined that Nigeria must get out of the mire of poverty by transforming its vast human capital into wealth, citing Indonesia, Singapore and Japan as examples. He emphasized that the thrust of the coming generation of leaders must be job creation which will ensure that Nigerians will live comfortably, above the poverty line.

That is just a bit of what i witnessed. In the next write - up i`ll tell u about the Restoration Group and what they profess,as we were told at the meeting. I`ll also tell you my thoughts about the whole idea that the Group is pushing.

Lets look forward to a better Nigeria.