Lawrence Wilbert, President, Unity Schools Old Students Association (right) and Chidi Odinkalu.•USOSA President-General, Lawrence Wilbert, says “Education is a fundamental and constitutional right, let us create a secure environment for the child to thrive’’
•Sends clarion call for old students to rise and save Nigeria with their unique training and knowledge-based skills
SCHOOLS in Nigeria must be protected if the nation wishes to secure its future, so declared former students of Unity Schools in Nigeria country under the aegis of the Unity Schools Old Students Association (USOSA).
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The old students have thus alerted the Nigerian government on what they termed worsening security situation across the country.
USOSA in a communiqué issued Sunday at the end of its 38th Plenary and Annual General Meeting (AGM) noted that present and past leaderships of the country have run out of ideas in confronting the challenges facing the country.
Earlier, ahead of the plenary the President-General had stated that USOSA abhors extremism, particularly as it relates to the safety of students and academic establishments.
“We have lost too many innocent souls, and education sector is seriously threatened, particularly in the northern part of Nigeria.
“In this quest of nation building, the role of education – basic and secondary cannot be over emphasised”
The alumni agreed with the President-General, Lawrence Wilbert, that education is a fundamental and constitutional right, stating that the government must create a secure environment for the child to thrive. The association further stated that the inability of the government to tackle security and other challenges facing the society has left schools exposed to attacks and left Nigerians aghast and desperately groaning for help.
The President- General, in his address themed “The Role of USOSA in Uniting Nigeria”, insisted that Nigeria’s unity was under threat due to inability of leaders to proffer solution to the myriads of challenges bedeviling the country and failure to harness many ideas put forward by citizens on how to reorganize Nigeria.
He said: “The strong, united Nigeria we knew as children and students of various unity schools across the land is clearly disintegrating before our eyes.
The socio-economic prosperity, ethno-religious co-existence and mutual trust, sound moral quotient, palpable patriotic spirit, people oriented political leadership and other vital features of our national fabric seemingly have taken permanent leave of our shores.
“The consequences are glaring. Our law and justice system, education, business and finance, security and agriculture, sports and health, science and technology, politics and governance, and other vestiges of functional society have taken deep plunge into the abyss of a failing nationhood.’
Wilbert said the government and virtually all other institutions at all levels are evidently confounded and appear to have run out of ideas and even excuses for the sorry state of affairs, allegedly leaving the citizenry aghast and desperately groaning for help.
Wilbert, therefore, called on Nigerians to confront and address social inequities, wanton corruption, nepotism, and other forms of ills, which he said threaten the existence of the nation.
He stressed the need to sensitise the populace to be eternally vigilant and hold all leaders and office holders accountable for their words and actions.
He added: “So, who shall rescue the nation? God? Yes. But He already has, by creating me, you and the hordes of other USOSAns all over Nigeria and in the diaspora, and ensuring that we were privileged to be chosen and well groomed to believe in the unity and progress of our country.”
Wilbert went on to say: “We received the requisite training and inspiration, gained unique insight and understanding of our country and peoples, and experienced that needful bond amongst ourselves so truly and so early in life to know that our national oneness is an ideal that is possible and sustainable. Recreate that reality we must, even if we have to conjure it. That is our collective destiny.”
“We must all individually be alive to our civic responsibilities and especially get actively involved in politics and governance of our country, albeit retaining USOSA’s status as an apolitical organisation.”
He urged his colleagues to join any political party and strive to influence that party to prioritise broad-based national interests in its affairs and conduct.
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