Former Speaker of Nigeria’s House of Representatives, Honourable Dimeji Bankole has called on Nigerians to elect leaders who are responsible and have interest in the Nigerian project irrespective of their age.
The former House of Representatives Speaker made the call in Kaduna on Saturday while speaking as the Special Guest of Honour at the 16th Annual Ramadan Lecture organized by Nigerian Television Authority, NTA, Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, FRCN and Voice of Nigeria, VON.
Dimeji Bankole said what is more important for Nigeria was responsible leadership made up of people who are interested and committed to the Nigerian project, rather than the debate over age of the candidates.
“We will continue to pray and take part in the process and try as much as possible to have responsible people interested in the Nigerian project to lead irrespective of their age,” he said.
Speaking on the topic of the Lecture, ‘Social Media; Effects on Morality’, Bankole said social media was not the cause of Nigeria’s problems, but rather a consequence of its problems, that, “without a proper diagnostic experience, we cannot begin to proffer solutions to Nigeria’s problems.
“If we get our responsibilities in the right order, from home especially, this thing can be treated from primary schools, secondary schools, formative years of young people, parents getting involved, empowering the local governments to make sure this things work, then we will begin to get proper foundation that would be very difficult for anyone to dissuade into bad immoral behaviour.” he said.
He therefore recommended that, as believers, Nigerians should go back to the Holy books for solutions to myriads of the challenges facing the country.
According to him, “Islam is a wonderful religion, which is not complicated at all. It has solved problems from day one till now, yet the Quran is still the same book, irrespective of different developments in this world, we still apply it and it gives us solutions.”
Bankola explained that the Holy book has laid down the rules and the order of their application, “the problem here is that we are putting number five as number one and we expect peace to reign. We cannot begin to skim and think we are better skimmers than Allah.
“We all came from communities first, before local governments, and state before we Nigerians. So, while we continued to pray in this holy month, we should stick to those tenets, and we will restore the glory of Nigeria,” he stated.
Earlier in his lecture on effects of social media on morality, the Guest Speaker and Registrar of JAMB, Professor Ishaq Oloyede who was represented by Isa Friday okwonko lamented on how social media has contributed negatively to corruption and crime rate in the country.
Former Admin Secretary of Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, Isah Friday Okonkwo who represent Ishak Oloyede said, “in the past, it was shameful to be associated with any corrupt incident, as communities could easily disown their own for merely being said to be corrupt. Today, wealth is being celebrated on the social media in a way that demonstrates acceptability of wealth irrespective of what its source is.
He said this effect has led to even university students indulging in all sorts of fraudulent and occultic acts just to show off or celebrate on the social media.
“Celebrating ill-gotten wealth, on the social media sends the wrong message to the younger ones that they could do anything to get rich. In the same vein some of the movies scenes watched by these young impressionable youths in which is responsible for the increase in the ritual killings being experienced today.
“The exacerbated crime rate being witnessed in the country today also partly owing to the exposure of our youngsters’ to the social media. For instance, and as pointed out earlier a lot of uncensored video being displayed on the social media teach many of them the art of crime. Just recently an arrested burglar confessed that he learnt the nefarious act on social media.
“Therefore the rising incidences of cyber-robbery social violence and cyber-bullying call for the attention of all concerned. It is also not uncommon to see how individual are destroyed by fake news on the social media,” he lamented.
In his remarks, renown Islamic Scholar, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi stated that, social media is just alcohol which has some good benefits and also bad benefits, adding that, just like alcohol social media is addictive and also encourages promiscuity.
He added that despite their negative effects, social media just like alcohol that is permitted by Islam for use in medicine, social media is also permitted and encouraged for social interaction. “So, what is important is that, we should drop the bad aspect of social media and embrace the good side”
Confidence Okwuchi
