The Shell Hall at the Muson Centre Lagos was today packed full with personalities from around the globe to celebrate the 72nd birthday of Bishop (Dr.) Mike Okonkwo and the 18th Edition of the Mike Okonkwo Annual Lecture, but no one saw strong messages coming from the Presiding Bishop of The Redeemed Evangelical Mission (TREM) to Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari.
Bishop Mike Okonkwo speaking with newsmen shortly after the major activities marking the annual lecture and the birthday celebration, said the federal government (FG) led by President Buhari must take agitations happening in different quarters of the nation seriously.
On ASUU
Bishop Okonkwo urged the FG to take the agitations of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) seriously stressing that education is the future of any nation.
He said if education is destroyed in Nigeria, the country is finished.
“The federal government must be serious about our educational system because that is the future of the country.
“If education is destroyed in this country, we are finished, then we have no future.
“They should sincerely and honestly look into their demands. Even we are not able to meet everything, ensure them that you are truly interested in their welfare because it is not fair their welfare is taken for granted, and then you are still wanting them to put in their 100%.
“So, I think the FG should look sincerely and honestly because when you are truly sincere about something, the person you are dealing with will know.
“They should sincerely look into their situation and help them out.
“At times we take for granted and think we can use government force to push down agitations.
“The FG must understand that gone are the days where you can push down people and use the government bodies to bulldoze them.
“The information is out there. We are no longer in the archaic days where you lack information. People are getting information and people are becoming enlightened.
“So, we must go back to the table and then look into people’s agitations,” he said.
On secession
Addressing issues bothering on calls for secession by various groups in the country, the revered Man of God advised that restructuring should be considered so “we see whether we can now stay together with that or in future, we go”.
He said that agitators “should understand that their future is not mortgaged,” adding that “It is not about having a geographical type of thing. They should not shoot for that. They should shoot for how we can better this country based on our unity”.
“I believe that we can achieve more than dividing. To break a country, a lot of things are involved. It is not something that you just wake up and go to a market and buy; so many things are involved. That means we will keep on suffering for many more years, which I don’t want. I’d rather that we start with restructuring; let’s see how it goes, and then we see whether we can now stay together with that or in future we go.
“We should not use violence. The other day, whether on the news or on the social media, I saw them moving armoured vehicles and troops and stuffs into the South-east; that is not the way to go when agitations like this come.
“These are not the days you use force or intimidation on people. People are willing to die. We should go to the table.
“Take for instance the appointment in NNPC; who will not agitate? These are the real reasons why people agitate. You can’t give 10 to the North, 3 to the South-west, 2 to the South-south and nothing to the east and you want Nnamdi Kanu not to talk again?
“At times, I ask myself who are the people giving these advices.
“I just also heard the approval of a rail road from Kano to Daura. What is the economic benefit of that rail road? We understand the one from Kaduna to Abuja. At least people who live in Kaduna can move to Abuja and work in Abuja. But in this one, show me the economic benefit of spending such billions to develop rail road from Kano to Kaduna.
“The States that generate these funds, we don’t even have roads that connect them, how much more airports. Even the Asaba airport was built by the State, not federal government.
“The States that really generate this money do not have roads, do not have ariports; and you want them not to agitate?
“At times, I say to myself what is really wrong? Is somebody playing some games with people’s mind in the federal government?
“Such things are not acceptable!” he further stated.
Present at the occasion are the President of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Chief (Dr.) Nike Akande (CON) as the keynote speaker; the founder/CEO of Erisco Bonpet Group, Chief Eric Umeofia as the Special Guest, and the Head of English Department, University of Lagos (UNILAG), Prof. Hope Eghagha as Chief Examiner of Mike Okonkwo Essay Competition.
Also present are Pharm. (Mazi) Samuel Iheanyichukwu Ohuabunwa as the event’s Chairman; wife of the ‘birthday boy’, Bishop Peace Okonkwo, among other dignitaries.
TheNewsGuru reports the 18th Mike Okonkwo Annual Lecture was themed Made in Nigeria Products: The Vehicle for Sustainable Development.