New Nigerian Nationalists Berate Political Leaders For Insensitiveness To Plight Of Citizens

A new political group, New Nigerian Nationalists has accused the Nigerian political leaders as the root of the debacle that is facing the country, describing the recent Independence Day celebration as a show of shame, as there was nothing to celebrate, and warning that henceforth, Nigerians would no longer tolerate or condone such.

Speaking at the a world press conference held at the Bola Memorial Hall, Bank Anthony way, Ikeja, Lagos, the national coordinator of the group, Mrs. Foluso Makanjuola-Oyenuga berates the political leaders of the country for their insensitiveness to the plight of the common man by stolen the commonwealth and even refuse to spend it in the country.

“They (political elite) practically live abroad, holiday abroad, study abroad, seek medical treatment abroad; establish businesses abroad and they only come to Nigeria to take the money they need to fund their international opulence.

“Even when they are home, they do not moderate their tastes. They bully us off the streets with their long convoys of exotic and rare vehicles loaded with whip and gun wielding security guards as if our people are common animals to be constantly beaten into line.

“They build fantastic estates with proceeds fraudulently made from our common patrimony and create a world of insensitive affluence in the midst of pervasive poverty. They have regular water provision, constant power supply, impregnable security or so they assume, among other good necessaries of life that the majority of their fellow citizens are perpetually denied. These overindulged leaders of the Nigerian nation have good reasons to celebrate,” she said.

Mrs Makanjuola-Oyenuga, while raising a poser, “Should we celebrate with the way things are in this country?, said celebrating the country’s 57th Independence Anniversary last October 1 to an average Nigeria was a “rogue celebration.”

“While some of us may feel offended by this sentimentality, this right of divergence is one of the beauties of a pluralistic society which empowers the majority to have their way, and permits the minority to have their say.

“While there was no census or poll to confirm which side was actually greater in number, it really seemed in truth that there was not too many reason to celebrate. Even the seeming ease that there is, is under serious threat and it is apparently unstable. Things are indeed fallen apart,” she lamented.

The NNN national coordinator, however, said the celebration for the group would start when the lives of Nigerian people began to have meaning and the government and society began to place the necessary and ultimate premium on the life and well-being of the nation.

“Celebration would start when the resources of the country are adequately and effectively deployed to provide meaningful living for every Nigerian without any form of discrimination.

“We shall celebrate when food is made available to all of us after appropriately harnessing the abundant agricultural potentials of the country. For us celebration would start when there are good medical services for all the citizens. Celebration should only start when every child and adult is rescued from the shameful grip of illiteracy. Our own celebration shall only begin when the economy is redesigned to comfortably serve and sustain every individual that cares to take positive and productive advantage of it,” she said.

“For us, the celebratory Nigeria must essentially be a victorious Nigerian in all spheres of life; it must be the New Nigeria and this is the Nigeria that we are irrevocably committed to,” she declared.

A member of the Board of Trustees, Paul Erinne in his speech, said the decayed sores of the Nigerian civil war have refused to heal after 50 years due to “leadership that could not effectively tender and heal the wound.”

“All the three major spheres of our national life are almost completely broken down. Politically, the Nigerian nation is at sea as leadership has completely lost grip and understanding of what national progress is all about, while all social structures and infrastructures of managing the society have almost totally collapsed. Our system and processes have become ghost of themselves,” Erinne said.

Speaking further, Erinne lamented the rot in all structures in the country, saying there was need to put in place a new national orientation, a movement that should be led by a National redemptive Movement, consisted of super patriotic Nigerians from all spheres of life and were committed to one common goal of nation building devoid of bigotry and self-interest.

Besides, he decried the current political system of governance, “which is a copy of and paste of the American system of governance,” saying it was tantamount to “hallucination” and would produce nothing.

“We need to design our home-grown system which is suitable for our country and in all sincerity, take the country to the next level in positive development.

“Stealing and vices of impunity is not a norm and must be eschewed from our society, from our populace, and the up and coming generations,” he added.