Speaking at the Osasu Show Symposium at the
weekend, Melaye said politics being
played by the elite is responsible for poverty and hunger in Nigeria, and both
ills have no political party.
Melaye, who
spoke as one of the panelists at the symposium with the theme ‘The new economy
and its impact on less privilege citizens’, advised government to build public
trust to curb societal ills.
According to him, “When you speak the truth, you
die, when you lie, you die; so it is better to speak the truth and die. I may
sound very unpopular but I will speak the truth. Apart from military
government, politics is responsible for poverty and hunger in Nigeria.
“Unfortunately, we the leaders, myself inclusive,
have failed this nation and have failed the younger generation-myself
inclusive. The reason why we are where we are today is because there is disconnect
between leadership and followership.
“As I speak
to you, the problem is as a result of lack of trust. There is no trust between
the governed and those governing.
“Once there is no trust between the followership
and the leadership, it will definitely have a negative concomitant effect on
the economy, and every other facet of our national life.”
Melaye added that the ills facing Nigeria have no
political party, and must be tackled by everyone. “Hunger and poverty have no political party, have
no religion. To have brought people to discuss on the line of APC or PDP is not
correct, because the poor PDP man and the poor APC man all go to the same
market.
“What we should fix is democracy; democracy is
government of the people, by the people and for the people. What we have is ‘greediocracy’
government of the greedy by the greedy, for the greedy. “We the leaders want to win elections at all
cost, so we spend money to win elections. The followership also is greedy, they
accept money to vote. So, head or tail, there is a need for attitudinal change
and this is affecting everything.
“Today, we
are talking about the recovery of our economy; we are talking about poverty and
how to fight it. The only way to fight poverty is for the leaders to build
trust among the people.”
He asked: “How
do you build trust? Today, if there is a policy statement banning the use of
generators everywhere including the villa, when there is no electricity in Aso
Rock, there should be no electricity in Nyanya.
“When there is no light in Lugbe, there should be no light anywhere; the
citizens will develop confidence. “When
I was a member of the House of Reps, I moved a motion that sons and daughters
of all political office holders, or all politically exposed persons, from
councillors to president should attend public school, that motion was not
seconded; it died!
“If the son of
the governor, senator is attending public schools, he will fix the school. So
the issue of poverty is self-created. I want to call on us, everyone;
leadership, followership, that especially the elites in this country; the
Amaechi of this world, the Dinos of this world, the Igbinedions of this world,
the Iboris of this world, we must take care of the poor.” Speaking on the issue of kidnapping, he said
kidnapping is the redistribution of Ill-gotten wealth. “If we don’t take of the poor, a time will
come when the poor will take care of themselves, and how are they going to take
care of themselves? It is already happening,” he said.
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