Pre-Award Speech By The Chairman, National Network Editorial Board By Prof. Barigbon Gbara Nsereka
With the shrinking of the entire world into a small globalised neighbourhood, owing to the advances in information and communication technology, one’s neighbour, today, is no longer just the fellow who lives next door. He or she could be in a far-flung part of the world, separated from one not only by time and distance, but also by the differences in language, culture, norms and values. Yet what happens to one person is known to another within a split second, by merely touching the computer button.
This simple, soft and sophisticated communication of messages across the world translates into a heavy weight of information upon the globe; and so, observably, ours is the most talkative age in human civilization. Regrettably, this development with the contraction of time and space, has not resulted, as should be expected, in the resolution of the many differences that have torn humanity apart.
As if the conflicts, crises, wars, socio-politico-economic challenges that bestride our planet were not enough, in Nigeria, the prevailing political atmosphere which smells foul of turbulence, acrimony and disharmony; the social landscape which is stained with the triplets of insecurity, banditry and cannibalism and the religious plane which is congested with bickering, bigotry and intolerance, threaten our existence and rubbish the essence of our democracy.
A basic concern of any government worth the name is the maintenance of peace, law and order in society. It believes, and so it is, that a harmonious, conflict-free way of life in the polity enhances its ability to tackle social problems like hunger, poverty, unemployment, drug trafficking and addiction, armed robbery and prostitution, and to deal with exigencies like pandemics and natural disasters.
Thus, it can be argued that any government which is not so concerned is either existing in utopia or is a natural arrangement in the kingdom of the lower animals. Although all types of government want a stable environment and are given to inculcating socially sanctioned values, the most responsible is a democracy. This is why it is heartbreaking to note that in a world that is globalizing democracy, which Nigeria claims to be, the country’s successive governments seemingly look away from acts of violence which even some very malevolent dictatorships can hardly permit.
Worse still, many political leaders display attitudes that lower the altitude of governance, resulting in administrative ineptitude, lack-lustre performance and ignominious practices. The business environment and industrial world are in the doldrums owing to misplacement of values. The investment firmament is inclement, cloudy and hazy. The educational sector is relegated and degraded.
We have fallen prey to a repugnant cycle of leadership that has seen government as a social activity that places emphasis on material things at the expense of human well-being. Yet it is well known that in the centre of development in any sane society, is the human element. Many social and political observers are lamenting that there is a shift by the powers that be from the realm of reason to the arena of mortgaging our common liberty. Worse still, power in the hands of the powers that be has been turned into a desolating pestilence.
All this notwithstanding, at home in Rivers State, all hope is not lost. When God took away the captivity of Zion, the Zionites felt they were dreaming. In our case, we are clapping for joy that God has remembered us by raising a man who is presiding over the political redemption of the State; a man outside the circle of the protagonists of socio-political humiliation and dehumanization of Rivers people; a man who is bent on restoring the glories of the past; a humble but proudly Rivers son; our friend and leader, the Governor of Rivers State, His Excellency, Siminalayi Fubara, GSSRS. He is poised to put our state back on a fast lane of human capital and infrastructural development.
Your Excellency, you are a lover of history. “History is the witness that testifies to the passing of time; it illumines reality, vitalizes memory, provides guidance in daily life and brings us tidings of antiquity” (with apologies to Marcus Tullius Cicero). History is replete with the accounts of gutsy and courageous persons like His Excellency, the Governor of Rivers State who prevailed and turned their days of adversity into a lifetime of success even when those adversities screamed at them to quit.
As a popular philosophy has it: “He that faints in the face of challenges is most likely to have the tendencies of fainting exponentially even in the absence of an adversity”. What matters in a fight between the fighters is not the size of the fighter in the fight but the size of the fight in the fighter.
You did not quit your political race even at the most trying times but sent a stern warning to the world that the Rivers species of humans should never be toyed with. It is, therefore, heartwarming and very rewarding to us, Rivers people, to have a history maker in you. You have jettisoned primordial cultural barriers into the sea of oblivion as well as overcome well-contrived, malevolent and spiteful campaigns and pernicious propaganda against Rivers State.
You are intent on having Rivers State written down on the first page of the world’s directory of the most peaceful and investment-friendly areas. For good measure, your peaceful disposition and advocacy for peace and stability in Rivers State has paid off. You deserve plenty of awards.
Other Nigerians who deserve awards which shall be conferred on them shortly are people who have distinguished themselves in their various areas of endeavour, mostly media professionals. While many Nigerians seem to understand Aristotle’s proverbial “good life” as immediate rather than mediate gains, fleeting rather than permanent pleasure, sacrificing their creative genius and public-spiritedness on the altar of unholy hasty acquisitions, these awardees are a breed of patriots whose heartbeat is to offer society ideas and knowledge base that outlive their generation. They are the archetypes of such ingenious citizens whom Nigeria must perpetually celebrate.
