EDO State Governor Adams
Oshiomhole Wednesday insisted that solving Nigeria’s problems required
revolutionary agenda and not transformation as is being orchestrated in some
quarters.
The governor stated this when he received the new leadership
of the Edo State Council, Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), led by Desmond
Agbama.
Oshiomhole said Nigeria should wake up to its responsibilities of
giving direction to other countries of Africa. “What Nigeria needs is a
revolutionary agenda because the level of decay in our society and the amount
of dysfunction in our society is high. The gap between where we ought to be and
where we are is such that we can’t make up through just reform. I think we need
a radical strategy to make up for lost grounds.
We are in trouble; we need to
sit up to meet up with those who have started working while we were sleeping.
Today, the Ghanaians are asking Nigerians to go home, when we were at our best,
we said ‘Ghana must go’ and they went, they fixed their politics right. They
have changed their political system; different political parties have formed
national governments there. Ghanaian democracy is on; power truly
belongs to the people. It is clear that Nigeria has to wake up. The African
elephant has been on its belly for too long, it has to get up and run. So what
we are doing in Edo is more of a revolution”.
He said the Nigerian media had done enough to ensure democracy
thrives, adding that they also needed to remain independent to sustain it. He
kicked against leaders who would not want to relinquish power including the
recent experience in Edo NUJ when an incumbent chairman refused to vacate power
even after the expiration of his tenure.
“You have commented very freely on the challenges of free and fair
election. The Nigerian media has taken a position over the years against
sit-tight leaders as African leaders who seek to perpetrate themselves in
offices, who have behaved like emperors. The Nigerian media is easily one of
the freest in the African continent. Whatever anybody wants to say, Nigerian
media unarguably is the most vibrant in the African continent.
“For me, it was an embarrassment that you had difficulty in
conducting a free and fair election and you had leaders who were reluctant to
vacate. People must recognise that the honour of leading a voluntary
association exists when you are freely chosen to lead and that when you are
asked to vacate, no one should give us reasons. That is the beauty of
democracy, there is a time to come, there is a time to go.
“Journalists must continue to lead by examples. We need
associations, we need groups to organise, to mobilise, so that you can
interrogate those in power and ensure that democracy is on.”
Source: Guardian
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