Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has
urged Nigerians to imbibe the culture of discipline, which he described
as a key factor for success.
The Minister, who made the call in Abuja on Saturday at an Award Night
organised by the Old Boys Association of the Government College,
Keffi, his alma mater, said the great emphasis placed on discipline by
the College played a significant role in shaping the lives of the
students who passed through the institution, including himself.
“Keffi taught me one thing, which is that with discipline, there is
nothing you cannot achieve. Those who came out to be good citizens in
Keffi were not necessarily the most brilliant, but they were the most
disciplined.
“What Nigeria needs to do is to rebuild the minds of its citizens. It
is because Keffi inculcated discipline and other high moral values
that we turned out to be what we are today. This is what this
government has embarked upon through its ‘Change Begins With Me’
campaign. The campaign is nothing but a return to the old values of
honesty, integrity, punctuality and industry, which were very cardinal
in Keffi. So what we are asking Nigerians to do is to go back and
emulate what Keffi stood for,” he said.
Alhaji Mohammed recounted the good old days in Keffi, when the son of
a Prime Minister and those of peasants cohabited in the same class
without any bias or preferential treatment, even though the children
of the rich paid higher tuition fees than those of the poor.
“We took the same lecture, were served the same food and we were subjected
to the same discipline. We sat for the same exams and by the time we spent
a few months together we forgot who was the son of a Prime Minister and
the son of a peasant,” he recalled.
Alhaji Mohammed received the “Cheetah Award” of the Keffi Old Boys
Association (KOBA) along with the Minister of Sports Solomon Dalung,
a former Comptroller General of Nigerian Immigration Service, as well
as Secretary
to the Government of Nasarawa State Suleiman Azores, and former Federal
Permanent Secretary Ibrahim Talba, among other distinguished personalities.
