Rights Activist Canvasses Productivity as Panacea to Nigeria’s Economic Woes

…Says citizens must learn to give back to society

The Director, Ola Oni Centre for Social Research, Comrade Wale Adebisi, has charged Nigerian people on the need to move the nation forward by contributing their quota towards national development and nation building.

He also advocated productivity as panacea to nation’s economic downturn, saying “citizens must learn to give back to society for the nation to grow.

Comrade Adebisi made the disclosure while presiding over a seminar titled “Popular Education of the Grassroots in Osun”, being organized by the Ola Oni Centre for Social Research, Osogbo.

The human rights activist, who decried over the worrisome state of the nation’s economy, said no effort must be spared among Nigerians at ensuring greater productivity in whatever they do.

The rights activist said the political class system had destroyed the core values of society, hence, making people to be disillusioned and as well lost the sense of communal consciousness.

He wondered why people always think of what they gain from the society but failed on how to impact on the same society, saying the time has come for Nigerians to be more productive and creative in all aspects of their national life.

Comrade Adebisi who called for new orientation on communal consciousness, said it is unfortunate that everybody hips blames on government as Alpha and Omega that can do everything they want in life even including the food they eat, clothes they wear and payment of rent for the houses they live.

He charged Nigerians to brace up with the current economic realities and stop thinking myopically that the government is constituted to champion the entire masses course.

According to him, “It is ridiculous that at this age, people are still of the opinion that government should stop building infrastructures, but rather facing what they called stomach infrastructure. This is the society we found ourselves having forgotten that it is the core values of the people in the society to provide and produce what they consume.

“When government is making strides in putting up infrastructures as being done by Osun state government for the purpose of development, yet people still complain that government has not fed them.

“But to me, what matters most are what we as individuals give back to our society. It is disgusting that people are not ready to engage the society and produce what they consume. This attitude is against what operates in other societies as some of these societies developed based on the people’s impact and orientation towards development and growth.

Comrade Adebisi lamented over Nigerians’ attitude towards taxation, just as he emphasized that, “it is inconsequential that people have never seen tax as an obligation that must be obeyed”.

According to him, “The society values had collapsed and as such, there is need to raise a fresh consciousness in order to consolidate and bring back a new rebirth.

“If we continue like this, society can not develop, that is why we came up with this seminar so as to orientate the people on the need to give back and contribute greatly to their society.

“This seminar has emphasized significantly on the responsibility of the people towards themselves, society and the government. We must understand the society, we must understand ourselves as individuals and we must as well understand the societal values so as for us to be positioned to where we belong”, he added.

Comrade Adebisi also said as part of the aims of the seminar was to ensure that the participants who were drawn from various groups in the society go back to refine their various localities, saying “the time is now for every citizen to be productive, gives back to the society and as well see reason to be responsible to government”.