PATH TO NIGERIAN GREATNESS: Under The New Dispensation On man’s injustice to man

Continued from  last week

ALL through the ages, the black Africans have borne the brunt of human degradation. They have been enslaved, and made to draw water and hew stones. We have fought for freedom and won – at the corporate level. But the fight for individual freedom for Africans is still on; and from the look of things, this fight may continue for many years to come. Here, Nigeria has an important crucial role to play. If we cherish our existing democracy, we must use all the tactics that we can contrive to help to put an end to .native tyranny and despotism wherever it exists in Africa. We must declare war for the eradication of disease and want, both in Nigeria and in other parts of Africa.

One way of terminating native tyranny and despotism is sedulously to discourage it. In this connection, a Nigerian Head of State should, as a matter of tactics, refuse to pay official or State visits to any of the known African tyrants or despots, or to receive any of them on official or State visits to this country. In addition, while we should be prepared to give economic and financial aids to an African country, we should only do so on the condition that we are satisfied that such country has and maintains a democratic institution. It is certainly detrimental to our interests – that is, to the practice of democracy in Nigeria – that anti-democratic institutions should flourish in any part of Africa. For this reason, there is need to reappraise our role in ECOWAS, and review, as a matter of urgency, the heavy financial sacrifice we make to keep this Organization going.

The search for nuclear energy for military purposes, and the threat to use our oil to wage diplomatic war appear to me to be completely misplaced. We should never try these tactics. Theone would make fatal inroads into our coffers, and the other holds all the potentialities of sapping our ability to cater to the best interests of our people. Britain has quietly dropped out of the nuclear race, into which we appear to be anxious to enter. No sensible country will ever expose its life-blood to the hazards of war, be it diplomatic or otherwise. At  the moment, at least 80 per cent of what goes into our Federal Account is derived from oil. We would be most imprudent, indeed foolish, to expose this source to allow wanton risk.

Some of the countries to whom’ we sell oil may appear naughty, but we should employ every diplomatic tactic to react in kind to them, while at the same time we maintain good commercial relations with them. As the saying goe:;, and with the solitary exception of South Africa, we must always remember that money has no earmark.

Finally on this topic, it is decidedly not in our national interests that we should behave now and again like a beggar country; or that we should thoughtlessly inveigh at others for conducting their foreign affairs in a way compatible with their own national interests. If we constantly keep in mind the rules of the game, by realizing vividly that it is the national interests that are paramount and overriding in the conduct of foreign affairs, and that where these interests conflict, each of the countries in the conflict is entitled to strive for its own interests to prevail, our pronouncements and actions in these matters will carry more weight, demonstrate greater maturity, and, at the same time, reflect honour and credit to our fatherland.

I now want to bring this address to a close. But in doing so, I want to pay what I consider to be very richly-deserved tribute to all of you, our five governors, members of the National Executive Council and of the State Executive Committees, our Legislators, our Commissioners, and our entire members and supporters throughout the country. The governors – Chief M. A. Ajasin, Bola Ige, L.K. Jakande, Ambrose AlIi, Bisi Onabanjo, have each and all implemented our cardinal programmes with undoubted efficiency, devotion, fidelity, and despatch. In this way, they have performed the expected magic, and brought great credit to our Party and to themselves, as our agents in office. The vast majority of our Legislators have conducted themselves with admirable sense of loyalty to the cause. True enough, we have had, during the past few months some spirited dialogue and debate on matters of outstanding public importance. It is a matter of praise for all those concerned that, from the initiation of the debate to its conclusion, we kept our sharp exchanges within our Party’s circles. For this achievement, I must heartily salute all our Members in the Executive and the Legislature, as well as those who hold various positions at the different tiers of our governments and organization.

From the events of the past twelve months, it is absolutely clear to all those who are right in their minds and are of clean heart, in and outside Nigeria, that the Unity Party of Nigeria, is the pacesetter and catalyst in the affairs of Nigeria. It is the bounden duty of all of us, therefore, to strive, at all times, to keep and maintain this unique, enviable, and incomparable position through the unknown and imponderable happenings of the years that lie ahead.

Concluded