NIGERIA: Case for industrial revolution as South West monarchs visit Sultan, say “our population and diversity our strength”

By BASHIR ADEFAKA

“the monarch said the reasons for the Nigeria’s problems are Nigerians themselves and that the only time solution can be possible will be the day the people effect attitudinal change and begin to treat one another with love and respect and bless their country daily, adding that no people curse their country and expect the country to bless them.”

Some paramount rulers from South West of Nigeria said Tuesday that the large population and diversity of the Nigerian peoples cannot correctly be blamed for problems of the country but that, the manner by which these divinely designed means of strength are managed is area that needs be assessed over and again.

This was contained in a statement delivered by the Attah and Paramount Ruler of Aiyede Kingdom, Ekiti State, Oba Alhaji AbdulMumini Adebayo Orishagbemi, on the occasion of courtesy visit to the Sultan of Sokoto and Chairman, National Traditional Rulers Council of Nigeria, NTRCN, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, at his palace in the Seat of Caliphate, on Tuesday April 20, 2021 equivalent to Ramadan 8, 1442 A.H.

The three traditional rulers namely the Attah, the Alara of Ilara Epe Kingdom, Lagos State, Oba Olufolarin Olukayode Ogunsanwo, and the Atayero of Aramoko Ekiti, Oba Olusegun Aderemi’s visit was coming about two weeks after the Oluwo of Iwo, Oba AbdulRasheed Adewale Akanbi, visited.

According to the Attah’s statement, the Yoruba monarchs were in Sokoto “in this crucial time of our national existence because, it has reached a point that traditional rulers cannot continue to do what the late former Governor of Old Oyo State, Chief Bola Ige, called Siddon Look.”

Citing a Yoruba parlance, Oba Orishagbemi noted that it would no longer be golden for traditional rulers in Nigeria, who are more connected with responsibility of saving the country, to continue to keep silence while those, whose stock–in-trade is to feed fat on on people’s calamities setting the tribes and religions against themselves so that Nigeria could collapse for them to laugh, thrive.

He said it was a misplacement to single out one particular tribe as enemy of the rest of others as, according to the warrior monarch, the enemies of every tribe of Nigeria are more traceably inward than the tribes making allegations.

To back up his claims, the Attah said discoveries so far have proved the pattern of individual tribe’s predicament, adding that the revelations by the Buhari’s Forensic Audit of Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, showing how Niger Deltans were the ones who set their own region back by embezzling trillions meant to turn the region around for better and make it Dubai of a sort, should now be an eye opener for all to know that problem of any region or tribe should not necessarily be blamed on other.

Speaking further, the monarch said the reasons for the Nigeria’s problems are Nigerians themselves and that the only time solution can be possible will be the day the people effect attitudinal change and begin to treat one another with love and respect and bless their country daily, adding that no people curse their country and expect the country to bless them.

Oba Orishagbemi joined the likes of Alake of Egba Land, Oba Aremu Gbadebo, Oluwo of iwo Land, Oba AbdulRasheed Adewale Akanbi, and other Yoruba traditional rulers who are strongly against breakup if Nigeria when he said:

“…achieving success and peace in diversity is not the absence of conflicts but how we manage those conflicts.

“It makes no sense when we have collective challenges and disaster and some among us, instead of cooperating with collective solution being proferred, cry abroad over unverifiable claims of how one out of many tribes is purportedly supported by the government headed by one of its members to kill the rest of the tribes and take over their land. It is obscure such a claim.”

In the statement the fearless and ever blunt monarch passed a vote of confidence in the ability of the Sultan to steer the Affairs of the country’s religious and traditional communities to the point of restoration of peace and stability assuring him of the support of him and his colleagues that visited.

“We have had enough and I am telling you here that ethnic war that is being clamoured for, by some elements of the South and in part of the North will not be solution to the problem that we have at hand. For this reason, we are saying that, we have always trusted Your Eminence to have the capacity for uniting us as peoples across ethnicities and religions. The best we can do is to come around to let you know that, whatever way you have chosen in ensuring that the problems of Nigeria have solution, we are with you.”

He said: “Therefore, solution to the problem of Nigeria cannot, in all honesty, be achieved through religious and ethnic war mongering over its large population and diversity. What we need to do is for all Nigerians of different socio-cultural and religious backgrounds to sit up and realize the humanity in them and say “NEVER AGAIN” to agents of separation for self-based reasons, who are setting us against one another for no other reason but to see our most cherished United Nation of the Federal Republic of Nigeria collapse for them and their sponsors to laugh having achieved their evil aim.

“Does it make sense that once an amalgamated entity or human has attained the age of 100 it or he break or die at all cost? United States of America is over 225 years, it continues to grow as a united country waxing stronger for the good of its people who say at all times, “God Bless America” whenever they wake up in the morning. It is sad that Nigerians will wake up daily and wish that “God breaks up Nigeria”. How does a country you curse daily bless you as citizens?

“Why should our own case be different in Nigeria? Your Eminence. Are we going to say because we are over 200 million people and so we are too large to manage ourselves as a united people? Or are we saying that because we are now well over 60 years of independence and are yet to reach the Eldorado we must then crash? What then do we make of China, the biggest population of over two billion people now in the world and still continuously being so? What do we make of India, an equally claimant to large population?

“At what age did those countries discover their final path to greatness or have we not heard or read history of British treatment meted to the red colours of Indians? Because they did not allow their challenges to affect their reasoning, they put their acts together. The Eldorado they attained is found today in the fact that we now seek China and India in terms of everything including healthcare and technology was not a thing achieved in situation of mismanaged population size and diversity. Food for thought for Nigerians across classes.

“Yes, particularly China, they saw that they were poor countries but they saw that they had a large population and sat down to make use of the large population as opportunity for achieving a workable growth and development for themselves.

“China started with technology transfer, whereby it ensured that any foreign supplier of technology did not handle a single spanner installing or repairing anything supplied but train and teach its own citizens how to do it. Before you know it, China jumped to the peak in technology and today, there is no civilization in the world that has neither respected nor looked forward to China in its quest for growth, development and seeking relevance.

“Immediate past President of the United States of America, Donald Trump, even alluded to the fact that China was capable of deciding who wins elections in America by saying the Xi Jimping’s country was positioning to sack the Republican sitting President through the now past election and install the Democrat’s candidacy of Joe Biden. In society where people of diverse backgrounds push differences behind and work together, that is what you have. Nigeria can be better than China and America.”

In the eight-page statement, the monarch was detailed about problems of Nigeria, commended the Sultan and President Buhari for effort so far, highlighted areas that need to be worked more upon and suggested solution to general problems bedeviling the country and its people.

“You would also agree with me, Your Eminence, that the problem of foreign debts that Nigeria has till today did not start because Nigeria needed a loan but because some powers around the world believed that to bring an African Giant under their feet they must subject it to borrowing, even when it did not need to borrow, so that, by that means, they could now begin to dictate how it lives its life. This is the area managers of our economy and the masses, who just love to talk without looking deep and deeper down the cause of problems, are not bothering to know. And they will not stop having the problems unless they change.”

He made case for industrial revolution with emphasis on sincere implementation of the coton-Textile-Garment Revival policy, saying the value chain had placed the North and entire country above poverty level in the days of the old and wanted it revisited if today and future of people matter to those in authorities.

“We all cry today that prices are on the high side. I wonder why the successive economic advisory councils and advisers of the President, before and now, have not known that the situation is like this, mainly, because as a nation system and people, we choose to be counter-productive by our shameless taste for remaining perpetually as consumers of foreign made products even food items. We are all in this together as government and people. If government wants Made-in-Nigeria goods patronized, what are its policies to that effect in terms of procurement and how is the government monitoring the adherence or compliance to those policies?

“We all know what position the textile industry occupied in its days as major economic power provider. Because of Nigeria’s taste for foreign products, which, when their supplies are shut against us, no people will surpass us in poverty level and hunger, and because of draconian government policies, the textile economic sector was killed. And today some people can claim the poverty level in the North is the highest in Nigeria. The question we should ask ourselves is, when the cotton-textile-garment value chain reigned, generating employments and making cool money for the North and the entire country, and this value chain was largely dominated by Northern Nigerian farmers of cotton, merchants and other partakers, was there any such narrative such as of “poverty level highest” about Northern Nigeria? That was the period Northern Region was built; may Allah continue to bless and repose the soul of Sir Ahmadu Bello in Al-Jannah. Amiin. During the period the North got all its development without oil money.

“Any government that is desirous of reactivating the Nigerian economy to restore the abundant employment glories of the past should and must take Textile industry revival serious. That was why in 2017 when President Muhammadu Buhari launched his policy on restoration of the Cotton-Textile-Garment value chain of the economy we all jumped for joy. But today, four years after, how many of the moribund textile industries they promised to revive have they actually revived? I heard they pumped over N120 billion into retooling and actual restoration of the moribund textile mills to augment the 24 surviving ones.

“We have continued to see no-impact-situation and nobody is asking questions. Who are the people charged with this Cotton-Textile-Garment Revival and what are their challenges? How many cotton farmers have they involved, trained and funded? How many of dead textile mills have they revived and how many new ones have been registered and established? We keep hearing about monies being loaned to textile manufacturers. If these monies were truly loaned to these manufacturers and our narratives about unemployment have remained the same with out youths still agitating against a system appearing to waste their generation, then we have course to worry.

“Or does it mean the people, to whom the monies were given, rather exported it abroad to produce using our money to develop economy and employment rate of other country and then only import what they use our money to do in other land into our country and sell to us as mere consumer nation people? What could have led to that attitude, if it is the case? Lack of stable power supply? Corruption of civil servants and work force? The government that put in place Made-in-Nigeria police needs to look into all of these. Even some Nigerians knowing that, for instance, a product is made in Nigeria, would prefer to patronise that of foreign country. This is also a factor. Where is the National Orientation Agency, NOA?

“Our Made-in-Nigeria policy will work the day Nigerains in all spheres change attitude from hypocrisy to sincerity and bad to good and personally self-convince themselves about Nigeria project. How can we as government preach Made-in-Nigeria goods and our National Assembly places vehicle orders with no one favouring cars made in Nigeria?

“Our military: The Army, Air Force, Navy, the Nigerian Police, Customs, Immigration, Civil Defence, Road Safety, and other uniform institutions are increasingly in need and are using uniforms daily and we still cry of low employment rate? If these organisations patronize the Cotton-Textile-Garment sector of Nigerian economy, what would unemployment and recession be doing in our public life as Nigerians. Is it not because we failed over a long time to make our agricultural and, by extension, local industries work that some among us are holding there rest of us into ransome over oil? We suffer high cost of living because of exchange rate and no way we would continue to choose foreign products over ours that we can get out the problems.”

Responding, the Sultan, who described the statement more as a lecture, commended the traditional rulers for their bold step at ensuring the peace, unity and stability of Nigeria. He promised to pick a copy of the statement and take up the issues raised in it with authorities in Abuja.