The leading governorship aspirant in Imo State on the platform of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, Sir Okey Ezeh has felicitated with Nigerians on the occasion of the country’s 58th Independence Anniversary.
Briefing newsmen on Sunday, the renowned investment advisor who also is a Knight of the Holy Roman Catholic Church said the birth of Nigeria as a sovereign nation on October 1, 1960 raised great hopes among Blacks the world over. According to him, it was believed that a giant that would lead that Black race had been born.
His words, “The hopes reposed in Nigeria were never improbable, for the world knew from the outset that Nigeria has both the human and material resources requisite for greatness. However, political independence has today largely served up disappointments, even as the economic development it had promised to purvey has remained an aching mirage.”
For him, “The challenge before us now is to redeem Nigeria, reestablish popular faith in our nationhood and deliver to ourselves the content and promissory values of political independence.”
Ezeh further submitted that what Nigeria sorely lacks and urgently needs is credible and visionary leadership.
“The failure of leadership in Nigeria accounts for the myriad of problems that beset the country. Poor leadership has occasioned the contraction of the economic space in Nigeria, thereby compelling people to reserve the little available opportunities to their cronies and relatives, and this has divided Nigerians along tribal lines and fed ethnic and primordial politics, disharmony and tension.”
Ezeh continued, “Poor leadership has increased the statism of the economy, created a political regime that is characterized by absolutism and arbitrariness, so that access to state power would guarantee stupendous wealth with little stress and no hazard. Poor leadership has debilitated our political institutions, abrogated due process, impugned the rule of law and created strongmen in weak institutions, resulting in democratic dictatorships.”
The accomplished banker also expressed faith in the ability of Nigeria to overcome her challenges and realize the expectations of her political independence. In view of that, Ezeh opined that, “What Independence should mean to Nigerians is an opportunity to become their best selves – actualized and fulfilled within the context of each person’s innate endowment. All Nigerians should enjoy an unfettered right to the pursuit of happiness.
“They should be safe and secure. They should have the basic things of life and an enabling environment to excel in entrepreneurship. Their lands should yield abundance. They should be well educated to become viable human beings. They should have faith in our values and culture and be proud ambassadors our nation. These are things that good governance can bring. They should be independent from fear, hunger, unemployment and disease,” he said.
