Osun Governor, Rauf Aregbesola Weeps, Says Nigeria Should Be Mourning

The Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola has questioned the emotion of Nigeria as a nation with its indifferent posture towards the deepening security crisis, which has seen thousands killed by the Boko Haram sect.
Aregbesola said this while delivering a lecture titled, ‘Federalism, democracy and the future of Nigeria,’ during the Convocation Lecture and 66th Foundation Day Ceremony, University of Ibadan on Tuesday.
The governor, who was overwhelmed by emotion as he sobbed during the lecture, said Nigerian should be mourning with the killing of schoolchildren and teachers in Potiskum, Yobe State, on Monday.
He said, “It is unfortunate that even if we should ask ourselves what the mood of the nation should be now, we do not know. Nigeria should be mourning by now. Nigeria’s flag must fly at half mast now. We should be wearing mournful look and ask ourselves how we got to be where we are now.
“Fifty of our schoolchildren and teachers were killed in a suicide attack yesterday (Monday) in Potiskum and we act as if it is normal. We don’t even have the feeling anymore, the conscience, the emotion and the fact that the only thing we have is life.
“I will not be where I am today if I had been slaughtered like that in school. That is just one of the statistics. In the same Yobe, some students were slaughtered at night while in Borno, schoolgirls were taken away and yet to be found or returned.
“Territories of Nigeria are being paraded by lunatics, mad men, who could not be called normal human beings. Yet, we carried on as if all these do not matter. We have forgotten that whatever is happening to a neighbour is a sign of what could come to others.”
The governor expressed deep sadness over the erosion of the visions of the nation’s founders, fearing that Nigeria could be heading for doom because of the latest oil discoveries by nations that once depended on Nigeria’s oil and the fall in oil price.
Aregbesola added, “Sixty six years ago, when UI was founded and Nigeria was the morning star of Africa, the founding fathers of Nigeria never thought that this kind of thing would happen to us. But alas, if anything, it appears we are worse than we were in the 60s.
“The oil price crisis is telling us that in 10 years time, oil will amount to nothing. Less than 18 months ago, the US depended on our oil, today US exports oil to other nations. If India, which is already showing the technological capacity, follows suit just as others, we are doomed.
“If in autumn, oil price is falling, what will happen between May and September? It is not the price that is worrisome but the fact that we now depend absolutely on oil without any belief in the fact that wealth is created by production.”
NIGERIAN EYE