Thursday, 11 October 2012

World Bank's Ex-Vice president Issues Press Statement





Oby Ezekwesili, a former Vice-President (Africa) of the World Bank who retired a few months ago, has expressed devastation at the killing of students in Mubi and Port Harcourt in the past week.

Here is the  press statement:

I am shaken; I am outraged, I am devastated, I feel mortally wounded. The situations in Mubi and Port Harcourt were terrible. Did you see the video-recording of how students were killed in Port Harcourt? Is this not the same country where it is emotionally difficult when you see a corpse on the street?

I am sorry; I am totally outraged like any decent citizen of a nation that we love. The killings were barbaric, mere savagery and very devastating. Some people are acting or behaving as if there are no people in charge of the government. "Something is fundamentally wrong with our society: To see the dastardly mob killing of four misguided youths(Port Harcourt's) who stole sank my optimism. Noo! Even in death, these four must get justice. My voice shall be heard on this. What have we become?

"We used to be better than this. What has psychologically traumatized our people? There is a fundamental problem; there is a breakdown in something that is proudly Nigeria. I cannot believe that our society has got to this level. We are broken, we need to be mended and nobody will mend it other than ourselves

We are getting to the precipice and we need to pull ourselves back. The government has to take full responsibility; it has to be in charge to prevent anarchy. The only way out is for the government to prove that it is really in charge.

We are a nation of 150million people; we are not a small country. If the situation continues like this, we cannot survive a large-scale conflict. It does not do us good to befell into a nation of conflagration.
We have to watch it. A lot of countries that have had genocidal experience started like this.
We have too many problems to descend into a state of anarchy again. How can we all sit and watch impunity.

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