Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo has tasked Nigerians to speak positively of Nigeria particularly to other nations.
Osinbajo who spoke at the launch of journalist and poet, Orukaino Umukoro’s The Memory of Seasons: a collection of poems on nationhood, faith and love, said a big part of nation building is all about building up one’s nation regardless of that society’s ills. With Nigeria, he said the reverse is the case, as Nigerians are often seen speaking ill of their country.
“Today, we hear in the US that between January and today, there has been well over 150 mass shootings in schools, malls, car parks, places of work at random by individuals. Yet, you will never hear an American at a conference say, “My country is not safe. People are being shot every day.” People of every country talk up their country. When we get home, we can criticise ourselves, we can say whatever we like, but we must talk up our country. We belong to one side. This country is our side. We must talk up this country and make sure that in every way that we can, we give the best impression of our country.
“A country is not its politicians or its religious leaders or business leaders. It is you and I. Our country cannot be defined by any group of people, or political party, or head of a political party. It is defined by those who are born by Nigerians, born Nigerians or who become Nigerians by naturalisation. Our stories must be stories of our aspirations, our dreams and our hopes planted with the successes of our journey, and the future of great hope because we have incredible talents and material resources,” said Osinbajo.
Referencing the author’s poem Imagine Nigeria in the anthology, which urges readers to imagine a Nigeria of their dreams – ‘a Nigeria where over 250 ethnic groups understand their differences and harness their diversity into strength to become a truly indivisible country. Imagine a country with focused, selfless leaders and strong institutions. Imagine a country where rule of law prevails, a country where there is dignity in labour, where justice prevails both for the rich and the poor’ – Osinbajo said such a Nigeria is possible with the likes of Umukoro “whose heart burn brightly with the reality of this new nation.”
“I am glad that the project he spoke to me about three months ago has been accomplished. I am proud of his effort and creativity that it took to deliver such a good set of poems so quickly,” said the vice president.
A former professional journalist and social activist, Umukoro, an industrial chemistry graduate is an accomplished writer with several journalism awards including the CNN/MultiChoice Africa Journalist (2015), the Nigeria Media Merit Award (2013) and the second runner-up of the S.O Idowu Prize for Sports Reporting (2017). Umukoro begun writing at a very young age with the support of his poet father, who helped him publish his first book – One Good Turn Deserves Another.
His poems Still Birth and Love Is featured on the BBC Network Africa and the West Africa Democracy Radio respectively. The Memory of Seasons is his first poetry anthology publication, and weaves issues of faith, nationhood as Imagine Nigeria, Life, and Love as Love Is.
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