Presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 general election, Mr. Peter Obi has warned that the nation was sitting on the keg of gun-powder.
Obi gave the warning in his statement on the Nigeria’s 64th Independence Day anniversary.
The former Anambra State governor restated his support for protests staged by some youth groups and civil society organisations to mark the anniversary in expressing the anger over the level of hardship and bad governance in the country.
“One is not suggesting that a 64-year-old country has no right to congratulate itself but the question remains: are we congratulating ourselves for failure or for success?
“It is with this understanding that I support today’s protest, provided it remains peaceful. Nigerians must seize every opportunity to remind our leaders that we are all sitting on a keg of gunpowder in this country.
“What we truly need in Nigeria is mourning. We should have donned sackcloth and ashes today and not engage in march-past.
“Our leaders need to openly express remorse for the betrayal of so much faith and hope. Nigerians should have gathered under trees to review the state of the nation among themselves, striving to teach one another the lessons of history – the rise, progress, decay, and fall of nations, and how, through accidents, errors and foolishness prevalent in Nigeria over the years, these great changes and failures occurred,” Obi said.
He further explained that Nigerians through various social media platforms should remind one another that all the factors making for revolution were all evident today.
“We should also remind one another how revolutions commence and how they are carried out, and by what a fatal chain of circumstances the wisest men are driven far the limits of moderation, and by what impulses an enraged people is precipitated into excess at the very thought of which they would have shuddered,” the former presidential candidate said.
He added that how those failures may be repeated or avoided should importantly be discussed by Nigerians.
Obi stressed that, “We are at a crossroads. We know what is happening today, but no one can predict what tomorrow will bring.”
He then stressed the importance of the leadership that understands the reality of the nation’s situation and acts decisively to steer it in the right direction.
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