Something radically different must happen for Nigeria to survive, says Ezekwesili

Oby Ezekwesili, former minister of education, has said the existing order must be overthrown for Nigeria to survive, warning that the country is “not presently sustainable”.

She urged the citizens to rise up and disrupt the status quo, saying, “we can’t continue to allow a few people who have hijacked our government to decide our fate”.

Speaking at the Big Ideas Podium in Enugu on Tuesday, the BBOG co-convener said: “The obsession with politics is a divisionary strategy of the ruling class every time which favours the rapacious elite to distract the suffering mass with politics.

“Nigeria presently is not sustainable. Something radically different must happen.

“Political restructuring will not solve our problems because the content will remain the same and the outcome this time around will be disastrous. We need economic governance as the basis for any political grouping the country may need.

“For Nigeria to survive, it must overthrow the existing order especially the 57-year-old political class and entrenched pattern. We need world class human capital not a nation of global trolls.

“A well constituted non-partisan group of intellectuals must help Nigeria fight this war because it cannot be a war fought without knowledge.

“We need a conversation of economic structure, inequality and governance that comes from the people. Its time to interrogate the dreams of the founding fathers, we must think differently.

“How long will it take for Nigeria to lift 100 million out of poverty when China used only 30 years to lift 700 million out of poverty. Its time for the citizens to organise a collective action that can produce results. Today, our literacy level is still 59 per cent while Rwanda has progressed to 72 per cent within two decades since the genocide.”