Tobi Soniyi in Abuja
The National President of the University of Lagos Alumni Association, Dr. Sonny Kuku, has appealed to Nigerians to be patient with the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Speaking with journalists after he led a delegation of the association to the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo (SAN), himself an alumnus of UNILAG, Kuku said that the rot inherited by the present administration had to be cleared.
Answering questions on the state of the nation’s economy, Kuku said: “There is no excuse for Nigeria not being like India and South Africa because we were above them some years ago. The difference is that our leaders in the past had been looking after themselves and not after the nation.
“What we need now is what is happening now where at the very top leaders are not interested in building houses for themselves or taking money for themselves but are preoccupied with how to develop the country. We have the resources, the most important resource is human resources, we are more than 170 million people. Nigerians are the most educated black people in the world. We are the most educated people in the third world. Anywhere you go, you will find Nigerians doing well in their respective profession. We have the resources, it is just for us to harness the resources.
People should stop thinking of what they can do for thier own pocket which is what has been fueling the problem in Nigeria, when people are taking more money than they can take to heaven, which is zero. We have the resources, we have money coming from the ground free of charge which God has given to us. We have minerals every where, so many good things God has done for us, we don’t have catastrophe, we don’t have hurricanes. All we need to do is use the resources to build our country. “
Asked why they were in visiting the vice president, he said: “We come here to pay a courtesy visit to the vice president who is one of us and to discuss various issues, one is the state of the nation, state of the universities and our own university, UNILAG.
“We have been able to talk to him very freely and we have put across to him the problems of the nation, especially the problems in universities and the problems in UNILAG. He has responded very frankly.
“What he said was very interesting because it is what we know. But the man on the streets, even those who are not on the strees beleive that the government is doing nothing.
“We are sure that no government worth its salt will fold its hands and be doing nothing in the circumstances we have found ourselves. So he articulated to us all they have been doing regarding the fight against corruption, which is the biggest problem that has destroyed the economy.
“He articulated what they are doing for the economy itself, what they are doing for infrastructure, what they are doing in the ease of doing business, what they are doing in education. We have told them that all these should be in the public domain because they are not only good, they appear to be good.
“We are satisfied that our own alumnus, of the university of first choice and university of pride is doing a great job for us and for the nation and we trust that Nigeria will be a better place with his efforts.”
