Fellow Nigerians, congratulations on our newly elected President and for the successful presidential elections in Nigeria. I want to congratulate all my countrymen, especially the president and the vice president.
Now, my message today is to the vice President of our country, the vice president elect, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo.
Well Prof. we made it!!! I am so happy for you. You went through a little bit of hell I guess. But God was with you!!! Prof. I believe you are our Joseph. Not simply a Joseph for the nation, you are the Joseph for the church as well. The hope of our nation and people are connected to you, Gen. Buhari and your future government.
Blessed are you, O land, when your king is the son of nobles, and your princes’ feast in the morning! And your princes feast at the proper time—for strength and not for drunkenness. Ecclesiastics 10:17
My personal appeal to you Prof. is to let your government be a government of values. I know the President elect Gen. Buhari is capable of delivering on this particular point. Let your government Prof. be a government of values. My appeal to you is to make Nigeria famous again for good habits and manners just like in the olden days.
When Gen. Buhari was last in the government, he launched a revolution for discipline. War Against Indiscipline. That is probably the best project that was ever launched in the history of our country. There is no greater need today in Nigeria, as great as restoration of values. Prof. can you imagine us restoring just one value for example, the dignity of labor? That right there will revolutionize our economy.
Let’s say we take on another value which is responsibility for your world, that will lead to a higher compliance to contracts and agreements, standards and quality, which will automatically result in greater trust in business and commerce.
Then if we open the eyes of the people to understand the value of time, it is unbelievable what effect that is going to have on the society. If every major meeting starts an hour late in Nigeria, meanwhile an hour is valued at 10 USD. If 40 million Nigerians are late just for 1 hour a day, to work or appointments, which is equal to 400 million USD a day lost, to lack of the value of time. (I assume 40 million will be the number of able bodied Nigerians of a working age in the minimum)
If we assume people go late to meetings 3 hours a day instead of one hour in a day, at the same value of 10 USD the 400 million USD should be multiplied 3 times, making it 1.2 billion USD in a day lost to lack of one single value – time. Please notice that an average Nigerian worker might actually be able to produce a product worth of more than 10 USD an hour. The amount could actually be equal to how much we make from oil at the end of the day if we take this seriously enough.
Most Nigerians will agree with me that this is a conservative estimation. I have personally witnessed when Nigerian government officials, spend nothing less than an hour on observing protocols, introducing all kinds of dignitaries instead of using the time for active productivity.
Prof. you know that there are a whole list of values we could actually convert to money as I did above. Values like responsibility, truth, honesty, precision, uprightness, equity, diligence, faith, fairness, faithfulness, merit etc. If we could get our people to commit to these and other values through a well-planned out information mechanism our economy would simply explode. The sky is going to be our limit.
“Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people”. Proverbs 14:34
Prof. let’s launch a revolution, a revolution of values. Your government must become famous as the government that brought sanity, virtues, and a revolution of values into the Nigerian society. That you should be known as a government that restored values, dignity, sanity and virtues to all spheres of life of our country.
Prof. I don’t have any doubt in my mind that you and the General are up to the task. Both of you are famous for your personal integrity and strength of character. Your partnership to me is a match made in heaven. I think you both have what it takes to start such a revolution. I guess it is this ideology that is behind the success of Governor Rauf Arebgesola in Osun state.
This is easier for you and Gen. Buhari since you are both men of values and integrity already. It is now just a matter of establishing in the populace that which is already dominant in your personal lives. Those values that are the core of your personality must now become the core values of your team. They must become the core values of all your executive members in government as well. These values must also be built into your party mechanism so other people who come through the party lane would automatically be embracing and ensuing your values and virtues.
“When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan”. Proverbs 29:2
I believe it is your God given mandate to make Nigeria a virtues nation again. Our people must be known as virtues people. I think we need a whole government program on making Nigerians a virtues people. To inculcate values of discipline, love, passion, hard work, integrity of work, integrity of labor into our people. These are what make great nations great.
Let’s use the Nollywood, let’s use the dynamic media community in Nigeria, the television stations, the films, the movies, the journalists, the print, the press, as the instruments of change. We already have all the instruments on ground, but we must work with them to make this happen.
We need to launch something official, similar to what the late Prof. Dora Akunyili tried to do. This would change our country. It would restore respect, dignity and honor to Nigeria as a nation and to Nigerians all over the world.
On another note, Prof. I know you are going to be in charge of the economy. Prof. you know people all over the world. More so, we have dynamic Diaspora everywhere. We have people who are ready to bring the best men, the best investments and opportunities to Nigeria.
I have earlier posted a message to Gen. Buhari as the President elect. Your government needs to maximize the potential of the diaspora population, you need to go for them. Prof. let’s go for the best Nigerians wherever they may be within Nigeria, Africa, Asia, Europe or America.
It is essential that your government practices an open door policy. Where by all foreign visitors could know they don’t need to struggle for Visas anymore. Let’s begin to get visa on entrance at the airport if possible, just let’s make it as simple as possible to bring investments to our country.
Let us begin to have companies registered in Nigeria in a day, within 24 hours. We can have a dawn of prosperity for our people. Prof. I believe you and Gen. Buhari can attract all the investments that we need within a very short time if the question of values are addressed. Many Nigerians in diaspora are actually ready to stand by you to make sure that your government succeeds.
Hope to see you in the near future to discuss further on these and other ideas to make Nigeria a better place. Blessings
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, CHURCH AND NATION
By Pastor Sunday Adelaja.
