A Public Lecture organized by the National Forum of Heads of Federal Government Establishments in Nigeria(NAFOHEADS), Osun State Chapter, came up on Wednesday 23rd June 2021 to mark the 2021 Africa Civil Service Day at AMORIT MULTIPURPOSE HALL, ABERE, OSOGBO, OSUN STATE.
The Guest Speaker, Dr. Oluyemi S. Omotoso delivered his lecture tracing the genesis of the Nigeria project.
The Interviews Nigeria gathered, according to Dr. Omotoso, that ‘’Nigeria’s problems started right from its birth.’’ ‘’That is, from the pre-independence days,1957.
‘’ Nigeria came from ‘’Niger Area’’ which was the amalgamation or coming together of people from these areas’’.
According to him, ‘’before a Nation can come together they ought to take consideration of the ethnic compositions, religion, and languages and should be of one mind or purpose’’.
‘’ The situation on the ground in Nigeria now is that some people are getting richer at the expense of others getting poorer’’; a situation where only three individuals possess higher resources than that of a State’’ ‘’They are getting richer, while people are getting poorer’’.
Dr. Omotoso says, ‘’We need a new constitution which must be fashioned out by Nigerians-the people.
Everybody must be involved. People’s culture, language, and ideas must be put into consideration in any constitution.’’ ‘’It must be a constitution by the people and for the people’’, he added.
‘’What we have today is the stronger Centre, while the States are weak; which means that we are not practicing true Federalism but Unitarianism’’. ‘’Nigeria should not be turned to poverty headquarters of the world’’, he concluded.
The Guest Speaker was of the opinion that ‘’nobody or no country can develop without the civil Service and it is the vandalization of the civil Service that caused corruption’’.
Nigeria, as posited by Dr. Omotoso ‘’is a Multilingual country and to practice true Federalism we must put into consideration the following panacea:
(a) A new constitution to be written by the people themselves
(b) Ethnicity and religion must be put into consideration
(c) Nigeria must be restructured, re-organized, or reviewed
(d) Be determined to make Nigeria great
There were various exhibitions of products made by the NYSC and others at the end of the programme.