Niyi Osundare said: “We don’t have a government in Nigeria. We have lost faith in this country. Where is the government of Nigeria?”
By Ishaya Ibrahim, News Editor
Professor of English Language at the New Orleans University in the United States, Professor Niyi Osundare, says the Nigerian government has gone missing, the reason many citizens have lost faith in the country.
Niyi Osundare is a celebrated poet, scholar and public commentator.
According to Sahara Reporters, the Professor of English Language at the University of New Orleans made the remarks in Lagos during an event tagged An Evening with Professor Osundare.
He decried the absence of good governance in the country which has resulted in the absence of developments.
According to the online newspaper, Niyi Osundare read from some of his collections of poems entitled “Green: Sighs of our Ailing Planet and Snapsongs.”
Osundare read: “We don’t have a government in Nigeria. We have lost faith in this country. Where is the government of Nigeria? I don’t have the answer,” he said.
“If any of you know where our government is, please tell me. Nigeria is a banana republic, but we don’t even have enough bananas to eat,” Niyi Osundare added.
Osundare also raised the alarm over the number of young Nigerians ready to stake their lives to relocate abroad for greener pasture.
“Four out of every five young men and women I meet in this country are trying to find their way out. When you look at what is happening in our country today, clearly everybody is trying to run away. Do I blame them? No, not at all! It is our rulers who don’t even feel this is alarming. I don’t think they love this country. The streets of America, Britain and France are not filled with gold,” Niyi Osundare said.