The first lady of Ekiti State, Mrs. Bisi Fayemi, has advised Nigerians calling for war and violent revolution as solutions to the current political and socio-economic problems to desist from such act, as wars or revolutions cannot provide solutions to the country’s numerous problems.
She gave the warning Wednesday, while delivering the 21st convocation lecture of the College of Education, Ikere-Ekiti, Ekiti State, with the theme: “New Faces, New Voices: Creating New Leadership Paradigms for Transformation.”
Fayemi, urged the promoters of war to imagine what was currently happening in Somolia, Syria and other war torn countries across the world.
She said: “Let them go to Somalia and experience what it means to be stateless for over twenty years. Let them go to Rwanda where an entire generation was wiped out and another lives in the shadow of that nightmare.”
“Let them go to Sierra Leone and see an entire generation of children now adults maimed and traumatized beyond imagination,” she added.
Fayemi therefore urged the country’s women to take advantage of their numbers as a critical voting mass to elect men and women who will create the enabling environment for the oppressed to thrive.
According to her, the current leadership paradigms embedded in entitlement, corruption, lies, deceit, ill-informed policies and a total disregard for the basic principles of democracy were simply not working.
Fayemi pointed out that what the Nigerian leaders in the 21st century needed now was to understand the meaning of social contract, which entails providing a clear direction, empowering people, giving them access to basic resources and protecting them from arm.
“We need a revolution that focuses on changing mindsets, attitudes and behaviours; a shift in our cultures of hopelessness and despondence to one of hope and achievement,” she said.