In the days of Obafemi Awolowo, Nnamdi Azikiwe and Aminu Kano, we in Nigeria would have been inundated by now with books and political tracts on the policy choices facing our nation. The statesmen of that generation had their weaknesses, but they were intellectual giants. Obafemi Awolowo was a profound thinker who wrote prodigiously — a master of the art and science of statecraft. General Yakubu Gowon once remarked that he is yet to meet the equal of Obafemi Awolowo.
By contrast, our leaders of today are Lilliputians. Nobody knows the political philosophy of the ruling PDP or that of the opposition APC. Beyond their hunger for power and the spoils of political office, nobody knows what they stand for in policy and substance. Where are the great men? Where are the ideas that will move our epoch and move our people to great undertakings? Where are the great projects for national rebirth and rejuvenation?
I look in vain for those Penkelemes men who have the fire of the Egyptians and the audacity of Aeschylus — men of valour who love Africa and Humanity. All we hear is Ikimi this and Ribadu that. And the mumbo-jumbo of political jobbers who call themselves ‘Transformational Ambassadors’. Is this the land of Ayodele Awojobi, of Chuba Okadigbo with his Hegelian dialectics – of the famed men for whom ideas mattered? Why are we fed such soporific nonsense by ignorant men who arrogate to themselves the right to rule without a modicum of intellect or Reason?[eap_ad_3]
