By Yusuf Mohammed Iriaevho
It was a fireworks of intellectual and ideological jaw-jaw at the Jesus Evangelical Ministries, No.2, Adegbeyeni Street, Off Allen Avenue, Ikeja, Lagos the venue of the Dr. Bolaji Akinyemi conveyed
Apostolic Round Table i a project of The Voice of His Word Ministries, today the ,23 January 2025.
The event which was a gathering of Nigerian Patriots Apostles; men and women in ministries, market places and public services who are Stewards of God to Nations did not in anyway fall short of the expectations of Nigerians who had eagerly look forward to the far reaching and Iñcisive presentations and positions on the way forward for our dear own beleguered nation Nigeria.
The event started off to a blistering start with the welcome address of the Chairman of the event, Dr. Vi Tor Okhai who took the audience back in time to point out the root causes of the many challenges facing our nation which he identified as the rule of the minority over a majority of Nigerians. He however offered a glimmer of hope for our nation with the declaration that though at a low scale, things are beginning to change. He said the sole purpose of the ART 2025 is for us to come together as a people and a nation to engage with one another to profer solutions to the challenges of our national unity.
Delivering the keynote address, Bishop Joseph Edoro Ighalo who was the keynote speaker went straight to the heart of the discuss by declaeriing that the elusive quest for Nigeria unity is hinged mainly on the myriads of challenges that has retarded our growth. He identified these challenges to be the overlaod of corruption, trybalism overloads, judicial overloads, insecurity overloads, historical griviances overloads, insurgencies overloads, self determination and actualisation overloads and many more.
He said this situation is what has led to the exploitation of the resources of regions of the country for the benefit and development of just one region that has contributed little or nothing to the nation.
This has also led to inequalities in all spheres resulting in ethnic agitations all over the nation today. In conclusion, he stated that what is needed is a total overhaul of our current system through a deliberate effort to depart from the present realities by way of a people centered discuss and agreement on the way forward for our nation
Another speaker at the event, Mr. J. S Skins of the Movement For National Reforms posited that tit was time to dismantle the undesirables in the structure of our national realities and then restructure what we already have. He noted that the name of Nigerian unity is located on the absence of a true constitution made for Nigerian people for the Nigerian people.
He pointed out that the only way to achieve this elusive goal was a return to the suspended 1963 Nigerian Republican constitution which till date is the only constitution that was made truly by the almagamation of all the ethnic nationalities that makes up the Nigerian Federation.
He went further to state that the restructuring Nigeria need is not geographical restructuring but restructuring based on ethnic nationalities. He said Nigeria can build on her 36 states federating unites by getting boundaries that divides one ethnic group into three or more states get those ethnic nationalities to do a referandom to agree on the basis of how they can form themselves together to form an ethnic based federating unites. He gave India as an example. He pointed out that like Nigeria, India was a colonial contraption of many nationalities, gaining their independence in 1947, they faced the same challenges Nigeria is facing now untill 1952 when they came together to discuss as a nation and decided to restructure along ethnic lines and today, India is becoming a super power.
Among other speakers and panelist at the event were Dr. David Olulade who advocated for a return to our culture, traditions and language as the panacea to build our nation and restore moral values to our body polity.
Ach. Bishop Segun Awe on his part declared that if Nigerians believe they can get what they want through the present political arrangements and engagement, they are decieving themselves. He declared that the greed of the Nigerian politicians who are profiting from the present inequalities will not let peaceful change through dialogue to come to pass. He stated that in this case, those who makes peaceful change possible have left Nigerians with the option to make forceful change inevitable.
Speaking with journalists at the event, the Convener, Dr. Bolaji Akinyemi said that the event was just a begining of proactive engagement of the Christian population in galvanizing their numbers politically to effect positive change across the country. He disclose that he was not a member nor sympathetic oto any political. He disclosed that his sole motivation was to effect positive change in the Nigerian Body polity
