The Olugbon of Orile – Igbon, Oba Francis Olusola Alao, has asserted that until educational opportunities are provided uniformly for all children in the country, it will be difficult to ensure that all Nigerians subscribe to the same system reward and penalty, share the same vision for the future of the country, and prepared to work together for the realisation of their vision.
Speaking exclusively in his palace with FREEDOM ONLINE , Olugbon warned that if the future of the Nigerian society is to be salvaged, urgent solutions must be found to diminiship value system.
“The country is repleted with all sorts of degradations ranging from kidnapping, corruption, injustice, kidnapping, rosaries, and religious violence. Besides, leaders exhibit corrupt and selfish lifestyles, as they failed to inspire in the young ones need to live a life of righteousness. Rather, they have been sources of scandals for future leaders”..
He lamented that Youth corpers in the South are afraid to be posted to North due to prevalent massacres in the name of religion, thus creating mutual mistrust and disharmony in the country,
According to him, “What can be done to bring this country together? A situation where citizens of a particular zone don’t agree to leave together with other citizens in the other zones of the same country portends grade danger for the future of that country”
The Royal Father advocated spiritual orientation for members of the states and National Assemblies.
This, he pointed out, would not only revive them to be more alive to their responsibilities, but check acts antithetical to genuine democratic governance usually associated with the law makers.
Hear him, ” these include truancy, insensitivity to well being of the teeming populace, and criminal extravagance. How do you intend to seriously rebrand the country, when these law makers continue to swim in an ocean of ill-gotten wealth.
” Let every political office holder be placed on the same salary scale with civil servants, and see whether this criminal extravagance will continue. It cannot engender corruption, but rather make politics less attractive, as people now see politics as quick avenue to get easy money, through treasury looting”.
The Royal Father went further, ” there is no other way to tackle it than government showing sincerity and more commitment that it wants to tackle it. Nigeria is a complex country where some things that won’t happen in other civilised countries of the world happen. But it remains our country, our home which we should all salvage together. I mean this security challenge should not be left in the hands of government alone. We must all be security conscious and continue to be our brothers and sisters keepers. Kidnappings have made Nigeria unsafe, and this is not a good image for us. Government should consider this very important factor because we have not gotten enough investors to complement us.”
Asked as a pastor, whether or not Muslims and Christians have problem in their relationship as alleged in some quarters?
Olugbon retorted thus “there is nothing like that. Those who claim that are only using religion for different purposes. My Bible does not teach me to make an enemy of Muslims. What I am saying in essence is that Nigerians should sustain peaceful co-existence for the nation to achieve progress and development which it requires to join the league of upward mobile nations of the world.
“To the best of my knowledge, what both Islam and Christianity preach is peace among their faithful. Even irrespective of political affiliation, we should embrace one another and bequeath a better future for the young generation. During the last Eid-el Fitri, I sent a strong message to all Muslims and called them to remain pious and work for a better Nigeria. I said 29 days of abstinence from indulgences are not ordinary. The period means body and souls have passed through some spiritual cleansing. Muslims should not revert to those acts they had dropped during the holy month of Ramadan.
” If this is done, the work of God is being entrenched. May Allah accept our prayers. Apart from that, I commended the Islamic cleric, Muhammadu Abubakar, who saved the lives of about 300 Christians being chased by some gangs of bandits in Plateau State. That cleric is a godly man whose act should be emulated by all Nigerians for the fact that he did not say because they were Christians that he must shut his door against them. He even opened his mosque for their safety. That is the example of who every Nigerian should be. Let us think of what binds us together first before any other consideration.
“I don’t have another country to be called my father’s land apart from Nigeria. And being a royal father makes it mandatory for me to ensure Nigeria is peaceful. I must always work for whatever can make it peaceful. But the leadership should lead with fear of God. How they would lead with fear of God is to create jobs and make our youths less vulnerable. The rising crime is a result of high rate of unemployment among our youths. Once employment problem is reduced, I am positive that the nation would grow”.
