The vice-president, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, and a former Minister of Information, Prof. Jerry Gana, lamented the high rate of values erosion in Nigeria and called for urgent re-orientation and revival.
The duo who spoke in Abuja Thursday night at the 2021 Edition of Africa Value Awards tasked Nigerians on the need to pay more attention on leadership and societal values as “no society rises above its values.”
Speaking as the special guest of honour at the occasion where a book titled: “The Key to a Great Africa,” was also launched, Osinbajo said as postulated by the late Kenyan Professor, Ali Mazrui; Africa needs three folds of revolutions which are values re-orientation, revolution of skills and revolution in gender relation.
On the three folds of revolutions, Osinbajo who was represented by his senior special assistant on policy and research, Mr. Chris Ngwodo, said: “For values, no society rises above its values. For skills, the business of the 21st Century is innovation while for gender relation; no society can rise with a high rate of gender imbalance.”
In his remarks as chairman of the occasion, Professor Jerry Gana lamented that the process of leadership training and emergence in Nigeria must be ethically guided.
“Serious attention is not being paid to the issue of leadership in Nigeria which ordinarily should flow with integrity. Importance of leadership in any society is very important, very crucial, vital and fundamental.
“We must place great value on leadership and integrity in Nigeria just as the citizenry must be given values re-orientation in stopping its further erosion, the basis upon which we are facing a series of unpalatable challenges today.”
Earlier, in his remarks, the executive director of Africa Value Awards, Ambassador Daniel Obah, said the event was organised for promotion of integrity and values, adding that “everything about this event is all about adding values to the Nigerian society.”
