Former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Dimeji Bankole has said that come 2023, Nigerians should elect leaders, irrespective of age, who are responsible and have an interest in the Nigerian project.
Bankole spoke in Kaduna on Saturday as the Special Guest of Honour during the 16th Annual Ramadan Lecture organized by the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) and Voice of Nigeria.
“What is more important for Nigeria is responsible leadership made up of people who are interested and committed to the Nigerian project, rather than the debate overage of the candidates.”
“We will continue to pray and take part in the process and try as much as possible to have responsible people interested in the Nigerian project to lead irrespective of their age,” he said.
On the theme of the Lecture, ‘Social Media; Effects on Morality’, the former Speaker said social media was not the cause of Nigeria’s problems, but rather a consequence of its problems.
“Without a proper diagnostic experience, we cannot begin to proffer solutions to Nigeria’s problems.If we get our responsibilities in the right order, from home, this thing can be treated from primary schools, secondary schools, formative years of young people, parents getting involved, empowering the local governments to make sure this thing work, then we will begin to get proper foundation that would be very difficult for anyone to dissuade into bad immoral behaviour.”
“As believers, Nigerians should go back to the books for solutions to myriads of challenges confronting the nation. Islam is a wonderful religion, which is not complicated at all. It has solved problems from day one till now, yet the Quran is still the same book, irrespective of different developments in this world, we still apply it and it gives us solutions.”
“The Holy book has laid down the rules and the order of their application. The problem here is that we are putting number five as number one and we expect peace to reign. We cannot begin to scheme and think we are better schemers than Allah.”
“We all came from communities before we came from local governments, and state before we are Nigerians. So, while we continue to pray in this month, we should stick to those tenets, and we will restore the glory of Nigeria,” he said.
The Guest Speaker and Registrar of JAMB, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, had earlier spoken on how social media has contributed negatively to corruption and the crime rate in the country.
Represented by the former Admin Secretary of Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, Malam Isah Okonkwo said, the JAMB boss in discussing Social Media and Morality, said “in the past, it was shameful to be associated with any corrupt incident, as communities could easily disown their own for merely being said to be corrupt.”
“Today, wealth is being celebrated on social media in a way that demonstrates acceptability of wealth irrespective of what its source is. This effect has led to even university students indulging in all sorts of fraudulent and occultic acts just to show off or celebrate on the social media.”
“Celebrating ill-gotten wealth, on the social media sends the wrong message to the younger ones that they could do anything to get rich. In the same vein, some of the movie scenes watched by these young impressionable youths are responsible for the increase in the ritual killings being experienced today.”
“The exacerbated crime rate being witnessed in the country today also partly owing to the exposure of our youngsters’ to the social media. For instance, and as pointed out earlier a lot of uncensored videos being displayed on social media teach many of them the art of crime. Just recently an arrested burglar confessed that he learnt the nefarious act on social media.”
“Therefore the rising incidences of cyber-robbery social violence and cyber-bullying call for the attention of all concerned. It is also not uncommon to see how individuals are destroyed by fake news on social media.”
Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, called for caution in the use of Social media, pointing out that people should use its good sides and shun the bad side of Social media.
The occasion was graced by other dignitaries including former Governor of Zamfara State, Mahmud Aliyu Shinkafi.
Vanguard News Nigeria