TELL Magazine

Rauf Aregbesola, governor, Osun State has identified effective governance as the only sure antidote for the growing spate of insecurity in the country.
He said this at the public presentation of a book titled, Yoruba Elites and Ethnic Politics in Nigeria: Obafemi Awolowo and Corporate Agency, at Muson Centre, Lagos.
Aregbesola said no amount of guns and military actions will solve the problem, “but building a society and nation where people come first in everything. Freedom for all must be first in everything.”
Similarly, Ibrahim Gambari, a scholar and diplomat who also acted as chairman of the event said it is a mistake to think that the business of ensuring adequate security is a sole responsibility of the law enforcement agencies, “it has to be business of all of all.”
The former under-secretary-general of the United Nations also urged politicians to stop trivializing the lives of Nigerians by politicizing the issue of insecurity. “The security of this country is far too important to become a political football, by accusing one another,” Gambari said.
Speaking on the book, Gambari stressed that as the Yoruba elites are being celebrated, the Yoruba masses too should be celebrated.
Wale Adebanwi, an associate professor in African American and African Studies, University of California, and author of the book, said he wrote the book because he was interested in understanding one of the most powerful and progressive political elites in Nigeria. “I wanted to understand the ways they organize for power, the internal dynamics and the challenges of internal organization,” he said.
The event was graced by prominent politicians and chieftains of the All Progressive Congress, APC, royal heads and representatives of Southwest governors, who rained glowing tributes on the late Obafemi Awolowo, the former premier of the Western region.