Nigeria’s challenges beyond partisan politics, says Bode George

Former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olabode George, has said that the challenges before Nigeria are far beyond partisan politics.

George, who stated this while addressing members of Lagos State chapter of the PDP, yesterday, said that managers of the country should change the path of old, look beyond what hobbles our progress, redefine our value system, rejig and restructure various anomalies that presently hinder the greater possibilities of the Nigerian union.

He said: “The turmoil within the Nigerian entity is about the twisted present situation. It is about who we are. It is about what we ought to be. It is about the greater tomorrow.

“Unfortunately, the sway and the swing of the present political culture do not favour the triumph of merit. It does not favour the promotion of excellence. It does not encourage the accommodation of hard work. And it discourages the blind indifference to ethnic or sectarian provenance.”

“To change cause, to redefine our path, we must cultivate the essential ingredients of meritocracy as the critical building blocks of modern nations.”

George also advocated restructuring of the system, saying: “The Nigerian federation is skewed, distorted and should be restructured for equity and fairness to prevail. Politics should be seen as a public service and not as an avenue to amass wealth.”

He condemned the recent Lagos State government’s legislation on anti-graft and alleged that the said legislation by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu only seeks to shield criminals from being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), which according to him, is unconstitutional and retrogressive.

He, therefore, urged the EFCC to look into the books of Alphabeta Company, a tax-collecting firm in Lagos, with the view of ascertaining criminal complicity in the looting of the state’s treasury.

The former Military Administrator of Ondo State also advocated permanent pull down of the two Lekki Toll-Gates in Lagos, suggesting instead that “a monument should be erected in honor of those young men and women who were martyred in pursuit of a better Nigeria during the #EndSARS protests last year.”

While he flayed the Lagos State House of Assembly for failing in its legislative responsibilities, George said: “The National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) should be abolished.”