By Ishaya Ibrahim, News Editor
Any hope that those who created Nigeria’s problems would somehow find a solution to it, is a pipe dream.
General Overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church (CGCC), Pastor Tunde Bakare, said Nigeria’s hope of change is in young patriotic Nigerians with the ideas and vision to move the country forward.
Bakare made the remark at the launch of an annual dialogue event tagged The Conversation Africa (TCA), modelled after Pastor Poju Oyemade’s The Platform.
Bakare said nation-building requires unity of purpose over a sustained period of time. He said Nigerian Democracy as presently constituted is not capable of delivering the much-needed unity in the country. “Even if we had this unity of purpose and a leadership structure committed to delivering a consistent focus on nation-building, do we have a viable blueprint to follow?
“Instead of plucking the low-hanging fruit of secession, this is the time for true leaders to come forward; visionary leaders with an altruistic gaze; leaders who can articulate and communicate a compelling vision to the people, thereby giving the people hope and courage to press on in spite of difficulties.
“We need leaders who can organize the people to take on the most basic and most complex tasks of nation-building. As we dialogue on the way forward, I say to the young patriots gathered here, and the not-so-young who have come because they, too, have a part in the work of nation-building; I say to you all – we stand at the intersection of the past and a possible future,” he said.
Bakare said the current state of Nigeria calls for a radical set of values; values that are radically different from those that created the problems the country is facing today as a nation. He called for a new set of ideas; superior ideas to the ones that led Nigeria to this wilderness. “It calls for a new set of competencies; skills and attributes that can tackle the problems associated with building such a diverse nation in the 21st century.
“This places a demand on our nation to harness the qualities of youth, to prioritize human capital development, to provide a conducive environment for enterprise capacity building with a focus on vocational skills, to make the economic environment conducive for innovation, to make technology accessible to the generality of Nigerian youth, and to bridge the inclusiveness gap in order to give every Nigerian a reason to feel included in Project Nigeria.”