Nigeria’s Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo said on Thursday that Nigerians need to have frank discussions on the issues that create divisions among citizens of the country.
He stated this in Lagos at the presentation and launch of the book, “The Road Never Forgets,” written by a former managing director of Daily Times Nigeria, Dr. Yemi Ogunbiyi.
The event was part of activities marking the 75th birthday of Dr. Ogunbiyi.
“We need to talk more to ourselves not at ourselves, we need frank discussions on the issues that divide us, we need openness about our fears and prejudices.
“Perhaps, that way we may gain each other’s confidence.”
Osinbajo said that the author of the book, Ogunbiyi, “engages every subject honestly, openly and frankly,” stating that Nigerians could take counsel from him.
According to the vice president, the best of men in any society must pay three taxes: income tax, social tax and civic tax.
The vice president said that Ogunbiyi, in writing the book, fulfilled the obligation of paying the third, having paid the first two previously.
“I must confess that Dr. Yemi Ogunbiyi has, in this ultimate Magnus opus “The road never forgets,” fully discharged this obligation.
“Anyone who has had a chance like me to read this book will agree that not only does the road never forget, but the elephant that walked the road has a phenomenal memory.
“The elephant as you know forgets nothing, its brain is five kg in weight. So, the Elephant in this room if you will pardon the pun, Dr. Ogunbiyi, surely forgets little.
“He speaks of a broad spectrum of issues from his childhood and youth through to events that happened just last year with the same mind boggling freshness of memory.
“Yemi Ogunbiyi’s story is at once the life story of a truly remarkable individual and at the same time, the story of a country.
“And who better to tell the story of Nigeria, the magical possibilities of our ethnic blending, than one born in Kano of a Yoruba father and an Igbo mother and whose first language was Hausa.”
Former Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, who made a remark at the occasion, said the book is “what I would describe as an unputdownable book to read. It tells in elegant and very readable prose the riveting and regaling story of the life of a truly cosmopolitan Nigerian.”
Anyaoku said that the author of the book, Ogunbiyi, “eminently deserves our demonstrative appreciation of this book, and the fundraising objective associated with is its launch demands a generous response from us all.”
Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, who worked with Ogunbiyi when both of them were lecturers at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Osun State, was also at the event.
For him, “The Road Never Forgets” is a book of love.
“It’s a love story, this book; and a lesson also in forbearance; the generosity of spirit that recounts a very turbulent and often treacherous mind field for recounting some episodes of real psychological trauma with such a forbearance of spirit, which people like me are not capable of.
“I really want to thank him for having found the right balance; the right language for this marvelous story of love to share with the rest of us.”
Chairman of the event, former Governor of Ogun State, Segun Osoba, who worked with Ogunbiyi at the Daily Times, described the book factual, intellectual, educative and historical.
“I can assure you that those of us who want to be educated in developments in Nigeria will find the book useful,” Osoba said.
Reviewer of the book, Prof. Femi Osofisan, recommended the book for both the literate and non-literate.
“Because the literate will enjoy the pleasure of pleasant reading and the appreciation of the quality of intellect behind the writing, and the illiterate, because of the physical attraction and hefty size of the publication.
“At least, if he can’t read it, he can display it in his room as an evidence that he too moves in the higher circles of society.”
The author said that proceeds of the launch of the book would be donated to the Yemi Ogunbiyi Anglican Schools in Sagamu, Ogun State.
