Nigeria: Letter to My Countrymen - This National Conference Must Succeed

13 March 2014
opinion

Every now and again I read Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, in the newspapers, where he is speaking in his capacity as Co-Chairman of the National Assembly Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution. Usually, he is making a spirited defence of some "important" positions on national issues which his Committee might be taking. I feel sorry for Senator Ike Ekweremadu because it appears nobody is really interested in joining issues with him on anything, including even his favoured six-year single term for a President and our 36 Governors. It is almost as if close to 170 million Nigerians at home and abroad have conspired to ignore him and his Committee.

Let me quickly exonerate Senator Ike Ekweremadu. He is probably a patriot and perhaps even deeply frustrated that the nation has chosen to ignore his every utterance, no matter how well intentioned. The problem he faces is the harsh reality that no idea can capture the imagination of my countrymen unless it has four important attributes: 1) Right Message; 2) Right Messenger; 3) Right Place; and 4) Right Time.

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