Nigeria may not celebrate 100 independence anniversary, says Akande

Former Interim National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), BIsi Akande has ruled out the possibility of Nigeria remaining one indivisible country at its 100 independence anniversary, if it continues to handle education, laws and religion the same way.

He stated this the public presentation of a book titled, “The Bisi Akande Phenomenon: Governance, Economy and Politics,” at the University of Lagos (UNILAG) yesterday.

Akande, who stated this at the event attended by APC stalwarts, lamented that 50 years ago, Nigeria was most enjoyable, saying, it had the freedom of what a true democracy should be, at least individually, but it appears today that everyone now lives in fear.

His words: “The phenomenon of the country must be examined among three things and the first is education. It seems that our education is colonial. It ends in literacy without numeracy.

“Education of a community that is not science based cannot be technologically good and a community without technology cannot be industrial and if you are not industrial, you may end up in poverty.

“Secondly, I think our laws are military decree based and these military decrees based laws cannot be used to sustain democracy. As long as we use these military decree based laws, our democracy will never prosper.

“Thirdly, our religions are mostly imported and as such, we seem neither to be good Christians, good Muslims nor good people.”

We merely live in fear and when there are problems, we have no laboratories to go, so we retire to churches and mosques for vigils.”

While commending Akande, Osun State Governor Adegboyega Oyetola said: “Akande is a pride to Osun and Nigeria. His life, politics, philosophy, leadership dynamics and lifestyle exemplify him as an outstanding Omoluabi and a phenomenon in the nation’s democracy.

Also speaking, Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu commended the leadership provided by Akande in collaboration with the National Leader of APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu for raising a progressives’ family and the type of governors the Southwest boast of today.

He also applauded the authors and contributors to the book, saying, unlike other memoirs, which were mostly based on falsehoods and self-glorification, Akande’s book was different and based on facts.

However, Professor Lai Olurode expressed surprise over the fact that the current electoral statistics in Nigeria indicated the existence of political haemorrhage.