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Bode George laments increased killings, banditry, calls for new national architecture

Ayodele Olalere

Former Chairman, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Chief Olabode George, has called for formation of new national structure to combat increase in banditry and killings the country is currently experiencing.

Bode George, who was the Keynote Speaker at the 3rd Annual Lecture of Freedom Online held at Sheraton Hotel, Ikeja, said different ethnic groups within the country must share the same values and objectives to truly become a nation, adding there must be equity and fairness.

“A nation is about agreed destiny and collective vision;  a nation is about shared values with well hewn cultivated ideas; the effortless summation of a common dream, of common truth, of common objectives, of agreed realities.
 
A nation is the spontaneous voiding of parochial limitations.  It is the deliberate eclipsing of ethnic or sectarian articulations. It is to reside in a unifying universe where growth is measured by hardwork and merit, where human enhancement is predicated on demonstrated rallying virtues of leadership, of strength of character, of dedication to duty and repose in honour.

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A nation is about equity, the fairness, doctrine, loyalty far beyond the pale of selfish recourse and of ethical balance in the affairs of the state,” Bode George said.
 
He added: “We are wrapped in growing mutual suspicions and distrust. Extremist characters across the spatial divide are perpetrating the terrible seeds of discord, pitting groups against each other, provoking malicious venom everywhere.
 
We are drifting into a fissiparous hugeness. The widening of sectarian violence, the loose , callous  banditry, the seeming ethnic  cleansing, the ravaging of villages, the murderous goon-squad on the highways and the endless eruptions of the Boko-Haram asymmetry warfare are indeed pushing everyone, regardless of one’s ancestral space in this country, into paranoia, panic, fear and the grip of virtual uncertainties.”
 
Bode George called for reassessment of the country’s present situation, saying everyone must work together to find solution to the ugly situations bedevilling the country.

“Surely, we cannot continue like this. We must re-assess and boldly confront what is wrong with the national architecture. We must work together to identify and rectify the variegated ills and the wrongs presently subsisting.
 
The future is largely about the present. It is a graduation from a discredited and skewed, imbalance structures of the moment  to a consensual, redeeming possibilities.”

He also called for decentralisation of the power at the centre, lamenting too much power wielded by the federal government.
 
“The center is too powerful, too suffused with too many responsibilities that must and should be delegated to the states.

We envy each other. We easily resort to suspicion, ethnic and sectarian bashing. We even resolve in some foolish sectional triumphalism, dragging down others with contempt.

We must change our ways. We must reproof the darkness of the past and the present, then situate ourselves upon a brighter tomorrow,” he said.

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