The Acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, has said that
the problem of Nigeria is that the political landscape has been disfigured by
poor leadership and bad governance.
He stated this in Abuja at the book launch of the biography
of late Brigadier Zakariya Maimalari titled: ‘The First Regular Combatant:
Brigadier Zakariya Maimalari”
Osinbajo, who was represented by the Minister of Water
Resources, Suleiman Adamu said: “so dominant has appalling examples of poor
leadership and bad governance been that our youth can be misled into feeling
that there is a total absence of idealism and heroism in our society.
“Yet, nothing can be further from the truth, in our past and
in our present, we can find exceptional examples of selfless service and
notable deeds with which we can inspire in our youth.”
Osinbajo added that “the example of Maimalari, particularly,
his growth from humble beginnings, through diligence and hard work, to the
dizzy heights of public service success is worth sharing. History can thus be a
useful tool in the propagation of good examples.
“History as a subject in our schools has become fairly
infamous, with students often feeling that the subject has no practical value.
“Yet, without a grounding in history, how do we know we who
we are, where we come from, and more importantly, as a people, where we are
going to?
“As a government, we have been concerned with the decline in
the decline and the study of history and this has seen us recover history from
the place where it has been ignored for too long and placed it back firmly in
school curriculum.”
By Chijioke Jannah
