A new platform for the engagement of the power elite and the ordinary masses towards rebuilding the country was launched on Friday in Abuja.
Former Akwa-Ibom State governor, Obong Victor Attah is the Chairman of the group which has Mallam Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, and Prince Tom Iseghohi as Deputy Chairman and Secretary and Operating Officer, respectively.
Addressing newsmen, the former Akwa-Ibom State Governor who expressed concern over the state of the nation, noted that Nigerians are getting despondent with each passing day and concerned citizens must seize the initiative to stop the drift into a state of hopelessness.
He said:” No one is likely to dispute the fact that Nigeria is passing through a critical phase in its history as a single political entity. The problem is not merely a tribal, religious, regional or class issue. “The magnitude of our current challenges or crises is self-evident even to the most hopeful of optimists.
” On a daily basis, Nigerians face crippling waves of insecurity; acute and chronic shortage of electricity supply; lack of good or adequate social and economic infrastructure, especially healthcare, potable water supply and transport systems; a broken educational system with over twenty million of our children out of school; skyrocketing inflation; weak industrial and manufacturing base; an unproductive but thriving national bourgeoisie; poor financial services; a corrupt, bankrupt and riotous political class; a brutal and ineffectual military-security complex; a creaky and slothful judicial system; a dysfunctional and self-serving public service at all levels; elephantine corruption; mind-boggling cost of governance; spiralling unemployment and grinding poverty; and, worse still, a corrosive and catastrophic collapse of moral and ethical norms among other staggering failures.
“This certainly is not a nice national portrait to sketch however one might wish to look at it. None of us here can deny the evidence of our own eyes. The question now, therefore, is how can we change this horrific narrative! The Compatriots are convinced that Nigeria possesses the human and material resources to develop and prosper as a cohesive and vibrant political and economic community. We believe therefore that the need for fundamental social and political reforms has become urgent and imperative, failing which the Nigerian national project could slide from stagnation to decline or collapse.”
The Chairman of The Compatriots disclosed that the group has set certain agenda for itself to reinvent the wheel of nation-building.
These include the promotion of core values of Equity, justice and fairness for every citizen; realization of the full potentialities of every Nigerian; protection of the rights of every Nigerian wherever he/she decides to reside Primacy of peaceful co-existence between and among Nigerian communities. The group will also inspire a proper sense of nationhood and common nationality.”
It promised, “to mobilize the best intellectual resources in addressing the key challenges that are hindering the development of Nigeria as a strong and viable political and economic community and promote a network of concerned Nigerians towards assisting in the improvement of governance at all levels as well as in the provision of social services.”
Obong Victor Attah dropped the hint that the new platform will be holding “meetings with top government officials, community leaders, the many aggrieved parties and particularly those who aspire to lead us in the future, to work closely to secure the future of the nation. ”
Other members of the group present at the media briefing were Honourable Mulikat Akande, Dr Nella Rabana,( SAN), Hajiya Inna Ciroma, Hakeem Baba Ahmed and General Zamani Lekwot.
