Featured, Politics
By Anthony Isibor.
PROFESSOR Anya O. Anya, former director-general of Nigerian Economic Summit Group, and an elder statesman has reiterated his confidence in a future prosperous Nigeria.
In a recent interview with Realnews, Prof Anya revealed that Nigeria’s greatness is dependent on the future generation.
Although Prof. Anya had in a previous interview with Realnews predicted a new Nigerian, he, however, insists that the current challenges in the country are only birth pangs that show that the country is gradually getting closer to the new Nigeria he talked about.
According to him, Nigeria’s greatness depends on the youthful generation. “It has become clear to most people that the problems we have, the present political class, and I’m not making party differentiation here, the entire political class are incapable of dealing with the problems we have,” he said.
He said that while the younger generation is already in the 21st century, some of our political class are still stuck in the 17th and 18th century. He, however, insists that this crop of people will fade out with the growth in technology.
“There are people who do not understand, and the situation is not made easier by the fact that there is the problem of mindset. There are people stuck in the mindsets of the 17th century and some in the 18th century, but we are in the 21st century and to a large extent, the younger generation is already in the 21st century with the rest of the world.
“There are people who are still in the 17th and 18th century. That’s why you have all the arguments about open grazing and no open grazing. Who in the 20th century, not to talk of the 21st century, is talking about open grazing?
“Go to Argentina, Brazil. Go to all the people who really export meat and all those kinds of things, there’s no way you will do open grazing because science has developed to where you can raise your livestock and they get fatter and even get better in terms of the quality of the meat and so on and of course you get richer.
“But what do we have, people will stay in the comfort of their homes and then leave some uneducated young stragglers to suffer in the rain and the day and be there to lead the cattle all over the place, and they think that is good for the economy. Well, they are only advertising how bad our situation is, but it will give way,” he said.
He said that these set of people would fade out with time “So the coast for them will continue expanding, and then one day, we will certainly look around as it happened in China and we will see that in 10 short years, you cannot recognize the country you thought was in trouble. It will happen in Nigeria.”
“That’s where we are, it will then not matter any longer whether you want to put the hand of the clock backwards as they say. Unfortunately, you may find that you may have a clock that you can no longer see a hand. So first of all, there is a technological challenge of being able to do what you want to do and you find that you don’t have the capacity to do it. That is what will happen.
“Nevertheless, a number of things are happening. The young people are getting more assertive and many of them are still writing their name in Gold on the international scene,” he said.
He said that his confidence in the youths is heightened when he paid a visit to one of the branches of Leo Stan Ekeh’s Group.
“I was proud to be associated with what I saw and the most interesting thing like in the speech I made to the workers, I said looking at your young bright faces, you have renewed my confidence in Nigeria.
“The things those people are doing there, people will not know that those things are happening in Nigeria. As you see that one, I am sure they are others who we do not know exist. When the network of them starts joining up to do greater things that is how the transformation will come.
This, he noted, is what gives him confidence in a new Nigeria.
He, however, urged that the elders and political class must try and address the imbalance between the young and the old if they must remain in the scheme of things.
“This means that the job for some of us the elders is to try and redress the imbalance, the noise and the violence. Reduce it to the point where these younger people can be encouraged, some to come back and some to pursue their dreams,” he added.
-August 04, 2021, 15:37 GMT|
