LEGAL icon, Professor Yusuf Olaolu Ali (SAN) has said Nigeria will continue to grope in the dark until the people change their character by embracing virtues and values that exalt a nation.
Ali spoke to newsmen, at the weekend, shortly before the inauguration of the remodelled Central Mosque, in Ifetedo, Ife South Local government Area of Osun State.
The personalities that witnessed the inauguration included the Olubosin of Ifetedo Kingdom, Oba Akinola Akinrera, Latiiri 1; deputy president of the Nigerian Supreme council for Islamic Affairs (NDCIA) and president of the Muslim Ummah of the South-West Nigeria (MUSWEN), Alhaji rasaq oladejo; Registrar, the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Professor Isaq Oloyede; are Musulumi of Yoruba land, Edo and Delta states, Alhaji Dawud Makanjuola Akinola; Asiwaju Musulumi of Yoruba land, Alhaji Khamis Tunde Badmus, Chairman, Planning Committee, Professor Rashid Aderinoye and the Chief Imam of Ifetedo Central Mosque, Chief Imam AbdulJabar Hussein Akindunmi.
Ali bemoaned that Nigeria has remained in ‘stunted growth’ in all ramifications for decades, due to the lack of impactful leadership and followership.
He noted that whereas the country ought to be running like the Asian Tigers that broke into the ranks of advanced economies, Nigeria can hardly crawl years.
“Nigeria has a stunted growth in all parameters in the measurement of the growth of a country. We are stunted because by now, we should be running, but we are hardly crawling.
“All the indices of progress, we don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Other countries such as the so-called Asian Tigers and the advanced countries don’t reinvent themselves. You can borrow and buy technologies and as long as you are able to have it you’re making progress.
“We need impactful leadership and followers that are honest and patriotic,” he stressed.
He noted that the followers are as guilty as their leaders for the precarious state of the country, advocating a holistic approach to redeem the situation.
“It’s two sides of the coin. You can’t be blaming the leaders because the followers are as bad, if not worse, than the leaders in this country.
“For me, we have to be holistic and must all play our roles, discharge our duties by doing all that are necessary to have the kind of level of development that we need as a nation.
But the legal luminary said the challenges holding down the country even 25 years after the restoration of civil rule are the incalculable damage done to the country by military interregnum.
“We grope in the dark because it is easier to destroy than to build. We may not appreciate the depth of what the military had done to our psyche as a people: lack of orderliness.
“Ordinarily, the military is supposed to be orderly, but they introduced a lack of orderliness to us. You were on a queue but when the military was in power, the soldiers would just come and pack all of you and go somewhere, especially when there was petrol scarcity. Military guys will just drive in and disrupt the queue.
“The citizens also witnessed such scenes, but they couldn’t talk. You may think they are not so important, but they have their effects on the system.
“What military has done to us is worse than what you’re thinking. So, if Nigeria had been left to grow in 1966 when the military came in probably, some of these issues contending with our developmental strides would have been overcome. So, every time you truncate democracy is a baby that’s trying to fall and you shout sit down, it will take that baby another one year to recover. The same thing is applicable to a country,” Ali said.
He also spoke on the controversy trailing the Tax Reform Bills pending in the National Assembly, which has elicited mixed feelings among some key stakeholders in the Nigerian project, stating that Nigerians usually avoid paying taxes on the premise that there is hardly any evidence of the judicious use of the proceeds by the government.
“Nigerians don’t like to pay bills and taxes and their reason is that usually the government doesn’t do anything meaningful with tax revenue. However, as citizens perform your own civic duties and then hold the government accountable,” Ali urged.
On the proposal for a six-year single term for president and governors to replace the existing two terms of four years each, Ali said he has been consistent in calling for the adoption of the option to arrest incessant fight for succession by elected officials.
“If Nigerians don’t change their attitude, nothing can take us to an Eldorado. We must first of all agree on that. I have always been an advocate of a six-year single tenure; it is good for our system. It will stop the incessant fight for self-succession by the officeholder to return to power after four years tenure. You will know that once you spend your six years you’re out of the place and there will be peace.
“However, if the six-year single tenure throws up an inept leadership, there is provision in the Constitution for impeachment.
“Whether you abuse it or use it wisely is a different thing. The system is self-cleaning, but unfortunately, we have character issues.
“Most of us don’t have character and you need good character for a system to work well,’ he emphasised.
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