Date Published: 08/04/09
3rd August 2009. Press Release.
LAGOS AC CONDEMNS BOKO HARAM CRISIS
The Lagos State chapter of the Action Congress has insisted that the on-going Boko Haram religious crisis in the Northern parts of the country, in which more than 1,000 lives have been reportedly lost, is an indicator that the leadership has totally failed in Nigeria. It says that the fact that at this age and time, some Nigerians still feel that western education is evil and are killing and maiming to enforce this creed is an indication that Nigeria is on the brinks of collapse.
In a release in Lagos, signed by the party’s Lagos State Publicity Secretary of AC, Joe Igbokwe, Lagos AC said that the fact that at this age in human civilization, it speaks of abysmal failure of leadership for some Nigerians to propagate the notion that western education is evil. The party says it fears that Nigeria is fast going to the stone age if nothing is done to make the country’s leadership much more responsive to the needs of the people.
“We are scandalized that in this country, there are still some people who believe that western education is evil just because the country’s leadership has failed to give Nigerians the needed sense of direction, which western education brings about. We are even more surprised that when most of the Muslim and Arab people all over the world are tapping greatly from western education and employing same to improve their countries and their living conditions, some Nigerians hide under Islam to perpetrate vices in the name of fighting western education. When such countries like Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, Turkey and so many other Islamic countries are making maximum use of western education, fanatics who kill, maim and perpetrate violence on the pretext of fighting western education are assailing Nigeria.
“We are quite appalled that someone who was a commissioner in a state was deeply involved in this primitive campaign which speaks lowly for the country’s leadership selection process. That Nigerians in this age, are involved in the act of shredding their certificates on very flimsy and backward reasoning, is an indictment on the leadership for failing to tap meaningfully from western education. We are very much surprised that Nigeria is being dragged backwards at an age the entire world is moving at a jet speed through the instrumentality of western education.
“Lagos AC sees the failure of the country’s leadership more in the failure of the federal government and its security apparatuses to detect and nip the crisis in the bud. The ease with which the fanatic tore through the states suggest a country with failed security and this has become a norm in a Nigeria where lax security has exposed most Nigerians to a heightened state of insecurity. We are more annoyed, alongside many Nigerians, on the handling of the crisis, which was only controlled after the tragic loss of over 1,000 lives. The way and manner this latest crisis spiraled and the shoddy manner of its handling suggest that Nigeria is hanging on the precarious balance and the leadership must be firmed up from the slack state it is at present. We are even not assured that such similar crisis would be prevented or better managed in the future. We see this grim prospect as proof of the precariousness of life in Nigeria at present and the fact that the PDP has ran Nigeria into a state of near-total collapse.”
Joe Igbokwe.
Publicity Secretary,
Lagos AC.
