the National Leader of the APC, Bola Tinubu...
As we enter a New Year today, it is all too
easy to give in to despair and despondency
at the current state of Nigeria. The gap
between our tremendous potentials as a
country and our actual attainments is
depressing and disheartening.
For a country
as endowed with human, material and
natural resources as Nigeria, the level of
poverty in which the vast majority of our
people live is appalling and unacceptable.
The voodoo statistics of illusory growth and
progress peddled by those currently in
charge of Nigeria’s affairs do not reflect the
dire material circumstances of millions of
Nigerians.
The ever widening inequality between the
wealthy minority and the impoverished majority
is fueled largely by a scale of corruption and
outright theft of public funds that have reached
unprecedented heights in today’s Nigeria.
All of these are responsible for the large scale
manifestation of sundry forms of violence and
insecurity across the country that undermines
the very foundations of the Nigerian state. Yet,
the growing impunity of an arrogant, imperious
and complacent presidency weaken the rule of
law and prevent the purposeful and responsible
governance necessary to tackle Nigeria’s severe
challenges.
But then, despair is a luxury we can ill afford as
a country and a people at this time. Despair
breeds depression and a sense of hopelessness.
This can only result in a paralysis of the popular
will that will benefit those who want to lull us
into collective inaction, so they can perpetuate
their misrule of our much abused country. 2015
will be one of the critical and momentous years
in the history of Nigeria. It must be a time to
renew our hope in the possibilities of our
country. Hope enables us to generate the
strength to take the positive action as citizens
to achieve the positive change Nigeria so badly
needs today.
Another Nigeria is possible. A Nigeria where
focused, visionary and competent governance
vigorously tackles corruption, insecurity, poverty
and promotes peace, progress and prosperity for
all is attainable. After the current darkness, a
glorious, new dawn for Nigeria is possible. But
this needed change will not occur by chance. It
can only be the result of deliberate and
purposeful action on the part of our people to
utilise democracy and popular power to achieve
national liberation and transformation.
If not urgently addressed, the stratospheric level
of hunger, deprivation and inequality in the land
will inevitably provoke a violent revolution in the
land. Indeed, we already have a situation difficult
to distinguish from bloody revolution on our
hand. It manifests in the armed robbery,
kidnapping, communal conflicts, religious
extremism, terrorism and ritual killings rampant
in Nigeria today. We have no choice but to be
active participants in the common sense
democratic revolution needed to salvage our
country. It is a common sense revolution that
must insist that legitimate power flows from the
will people duly expressed in free and fair
elections. Governments must assume and
remain in power only at the pleasure of the
people. That is the only way that democracy can
promote development by ensuring that
government is responsible and accountable to
the people.
My message to our fellow country men and
women is thus simple: this year must be one of
eternal vigilance on the part of us all. This is the
price we must pay for our democratic rights and
liberties as citizens. Let us make no mistake
about it. The traumatic experience of the over
200 Chibok girls who have remained in captivity
for over six months shows that plaintive cries to
an impotent government to ‘bring back our girls’
have become insufficient. Rather, we must utilise
the power of our vote to ‘take back our country’
from the predators and scavengers in the
corridors and bedrooms of power that currently
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