Obiageli Ezekwesili .......................'I SEE A NEW NIGERIA'

Yesterday the 1st of October 2013, I spent my entire day at Harbour Point Wilmot Point Close, Victoria Island Lagos listening to sages speak on the state of the nation. I took down a lot of things, but I would be sharing the basics with you.

The programme started with Ige singing the National Anthem. She sang so beautifully well that I had to comment on her voice to the hearing of those around me. The director of Google ideas Jared Cohen even commented on the unique quality of her voice and said ’’ I think I’ll invite you to come sing our anthem sometime’’ For posterity sakes I pray she goes.

 

The senior pastor of Covenant Christian Centre, Pastor Poju Oyemade had his opening speech and he had a lot to say on Nigeria at 53. He stated the vision of The Platform Nigeria as a Non-Profit initiative of Covenant Christian Centre which is geared primarily to improving the individuals of Nigeria and the world.

He said that one’s personal productivity to public service is the ability to transform the nation and to achieve as much as possible with it. Another very catchy statement of his was;

’’To loose your identity in your country simply means losing your identity as a person on this earth’’

 

The next person who took the Platform is Pastor Ithuah O. Ighodalo, the senior pastor in Trinity House. He talked on ‘Transforming Nigeria’ . He exposited on then history of Nigeria, to include;

ü Being the most populous nation in the African continent,

ü The largest collection of black skinned individuals,

ü To have existed 9000years BC

He also talked on the African crisis. He said Nigeria has an abundance of natural resources, but in all these we reamin extremely poor. He gave examples of these to include cobalt used in the manufacturing of cell phones, yet we have no phone manufacturing company. We have plenty natural discovery and little enrichments.

One thing he said got me concurring with a rapid nod;

‘Everyone is praying for a breakthrough, why not work hard’. He advised the young generations with genuine sense of service to join politics and forget the ideology of politics being for dirty people. In his own words

‘If politics is dirty, why not go in and clean it up’

Jared Cohen, the director of Google Ideas then talked on ‘The New Digital Age’

He greeted us in our own indigenous language ‘ekaro’. It sounded like he had hot potatoes in his mouth, but I was happy he put in effort to learn something of ours. He praised our Nigerian entrepreneurial skills, and encouraged our optimistic outlook in life.

He said we should be happy with our freedom, freedom to use just about anything in Nigeria. He highlighted some warring nations where their government put a ban on the use of internet, and they had to use Bluetooth to spread information.

He spoke on physically challenged people who use internet to run their businesses without fear of being pitted because of their stage. He shared the testimony of an autistic child who through the use of internet has been able to build her self confidence.

Next came the Former Vice President of World Bank, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili who spoke on ‘I See a New Nigeria’. After her talk, I did see a new Nigeria too. She said, we may not be where we want to be, but we are not where we used to be.

Some of her key words include;

ü Good governance is the launch pad to greatness

ü Government should be made up of individuals with good character and capacity to lead

ü The quality of growth ensures people to lift themselves out of poverty.

She was of the opinion that the citizenry make up the agency of governance and not the people running the agency. She also opined that bad or failed governance is as a result of no shared values and visions amongst individuals.

 

Then came The former editor of THISDAY, Simon Kolawole, who spoke using examples of real life Nigerian political system. He said that polical fracas could be likened to where a committee of friends are having  minor misunderstanding. He said Ethnic propagandas come as a result of political selfish gains. He was also of the view that we need to ask questions. Asking questions he says, is the process that will lead to what we want; Which is competency and patriotism. He also said something worthy of note 

'It does not take 170million people to change Nigeria. You start changing by asking questions'

The programme sure was very enlightening, but I could not stay till the end because I had mobility issues and had to leave before dark. 

Some more pictures from The Plaform 11.0