Edo State Deputy Governor, Rt. Hon. Comr. Philip Shaibu has linked the spate of insecurity and banditry being witnessed in the country to refusal of politicians to speak the truth, urging them to be bold and speak truth to power irrespective of their political affiliations so as to make the nation better.
Shaibu gave the charge when he hosted the maiden edition of the Catholic Politicians and Captains of Industry Forum, at the St. Paul’s Catholic Church Hall in Benin City, with the theme, “State of the Nigerian Nation; Catholic Politicians and Captains of Industry Forum Chats on Way Forward for the Common Good.”
According to him, “I can tell you that if whatever we do reflects our doctrines, we won’t have this insurgency that we are experiencing right now. If we tell ourselves the truth, we will not have all these crises that are self-inflicted; we are the cause.
“But I am happy that we now have a forum that we can use in telling ourselves the truth. For us, we will continue to speak the truth; there are good people in government, just that majority of them are bad, and the system is really bad too. Until we fix the system and stop talking, I can tell you that Nigeria will remain where it is.”
He continued: “We will continue to speak truth to power; we are also appealing to some of our people, if you want to decamp from your political parties, no problem, but speak truth to power. When things are bad, say it’s bad and find a way to provide a solution. Let us collectively continue to speak truth to power.
“If you are in a particular political party and things are not working well, speak to your head let him know that things are bad; be bold to speak the truth; if he refuses to take it, it doesn’t matter but speak the truth.”
Earlier in his opening remarks, the Chairman of Catholic Politicians and Captains of Industry Forum, Prof. Pat Utomi, said, “If we all put on our thinking caps; if we look at intelligence, information and trends, then we can predict things that will go wrong, and we can intervene to work to prevent those things from going wrong. All the problems that we are experiencing in Nigeria today are predictable.
“Let’s also help to facilitate the building of institutions that will essentially socialize the young people into new sets of values that will make the society a better place for everybody.”
