Ondo State governor, Mr. Oluwarotimi Akeredolu yesterday made case for a new NIgeria, where equity, justice, peace and progress would be the guiding principles.
He urged the citizens to examine the challenges confronting the country to enable them offer workable solutions to them.
Akeredolu said the challenges confronting the country were not strange as they had happened in other parts of the world.
The governor, who spoke as the guest lecturer at the 2017 Faculty of Arts Distinguished Lecture at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, expressed the belief that Nigeria had solutions to its challenges but lacked the will to ask the right questions the right way with the right words at the right time.
Akeredolu, like other eminent Nigerians, condemned agitations by some ethnic groups for the balkanization of the country.
Akeredolu lamented that the Nigerian situation was so challenging, frustrating, embarrassing and yet marveling.
The governor said: “Today’s realities have overstated themselves, truth have moved almost beyond constancy to stagnacy while appearance and realities are now at conflict with themselves.
“In the circumstance where leaders and men of power inexplicably appear clueless and lethargic about how to respond to these challenges, fear comes in and seems to rule our world without bounds.”
Akeredolu, who spoke on “Beyond Recession: Re-inventing the Nigerian Federation” said Nigeria was not the first country to experience recession, adding that many countries had gone through similar problem.
He said: “The United States experienced severe recession in 1930. The strategies and tactics deployed by these these countries, many of which are now advanced both in economy and technology must be understood and put into context.
“The lessons derivable are enormous. Failure to avail ourselves of the lessons, which those experiences teach, will not be attributable to lack of striking and compelling examples.”
The governor, recalled that the healthy competition among the three major ethnic groups in the country ensured that each of the regions developed at its own pace.
He said: “Each region was semi-autonomous, maintaining its distinctive features and focusing on its aspirations to achieve excellence.”
As a way to return the country to the great old days, Akeredolu reiterated his earlier call for the restructuring of the country.
He called for a blueprint for the country’s restructuring.
