The lecture, entitled “the imperative of good governance and trustworthy leadership for national development and delivered by Professor Etannibi Alemika of the Department of Sociology, University of Jos, held Saturday at Mopa Town Hall of Mopamuro Local Government Council (LGC) in Kogi State .

The lecture marked the finale of the two-day activities organised by Okun People in Kogi State in honour of late Chief Sunday Awoniyi, the Aro of Mopa who died of injuries sustained from ghastly road traffic accident along Abuja-Kaduna road last year.

According to the Guest lecturer, Professor Alemika, said Awoniyi was gentle as a dove and yet a very stubborn advocate of democratic and good governance.

He said, “Chief Awoniyi belonged to a small and endangered tribe of honest and patriotic men and women who are willing to pay costly prices for their demand for democracy and good governance, and for the emancipation of the vast majority of the citizens from political and bureaucratic shylocks”.

“This is the great man whom we have come to remember, hopefully with the desire and commitment”, he said.

According to him, “today’s event is a very significant one, at least for two reasons. First, it is an occasion for the celebration of the life, works and principles of Chief SB Awoniyi, a great Nigerian; a distinguished Northerner, and an eminent Yagba man. The life and principles Awoniyi reflected the cardinal principles of leadership”.

“Second, the event avails us opportunity to reflect on the greatest needs of our country ( Nigeria ), State (Kogi) and our land and community”, adding the most critical needs are good governance and trustworthy leadership, both of which are prerequisites for the national development”.

He said, good governance and leadership are requisites for development at national, state, local council area and community levels.

“I conclude this lecture by highlighting two important lessons that we need to learn and which Chief SB Awoniyi has taught us; first, in a country or state where good governance is institutionalised, all and everyone with requisite competence can aspire to lead and indeed be given the opportunity to provide leadership”.

“Awoniyi died as a leader of the North, a formidable position, though he was by religion, probably a minority in the region, an ethno-culturally as a Yagba man, he was no more than a near invisible micro-minority, a minority of minorities”.

“Second, opposition to evil and wicked governance and the struggle for good governance and leadership in Nigeria are a very significant virtues to be desired more than holding prime political offices in a regime characterised by bad governance or populated by untrustworthy leaders whose credentials are excellent performance as fraudsters and political thugs or jobbers”,

“If we go away with these two lessons and commit ourselves to the institutionalisation of good governance and trustworthy leadership, we would have honoured Chief Awoniyi. But even more important, we would have ignited a movement and change process that will transform our nation from the current endemic conditions of anarchy, injustice, insecurity and widespread deprivations into a humane, secure, peaceful, cohesive and developed society”.           

Elder statesman and childhood friend of Awoniyi, Alhaji Adamu Faki, who was the Chairman of the occasion, lamented that attempts by Chief Awoniyi to institutionalise transparency and good governance was frustrated by forces who don’t have the welfare of the people at heart.

He noted that, “it could be said that Sunday lived and sacrifice all his life in order for the nation to realise the twin objectives of good governance and economic development”.

“His (Awoniyi)’s death is 24 hours tragedy and a cause for mourning everyday, for the remaining days of our lives”, he said.

The Wazarin Fika recalled that, “after retiring, he would not rest. Sunday, who had worked with the nation’s best and most public-spirited politicians joined politics in attempt to recreate the heydays of the first republic”.

“Unfortunately, it was not to be. Sunday was up against forces that were very strong and did not have the welfare of the people at heart. He himself was not looking for anything other than good for the people and for the country”.

“In life, Sunday was tried and tested as to his integrity because many an irresistible temptation had been thrown his way by fate; but on every such occasion, he had risen above the pull of blind self interest”.  

Awoniyi, according to him, had a perennial concern for justice, in the community, in the country or in the cosmos. He believed in the inevitability of the triumph of good over evil, but he forgave when he was done evil”.

The retired super Permanent Secretary grieved that, “the tragedy of Awoniyi’s death is not that he is gone, for every living soul shall taste of death; the real tragedy is that he left a lone with a void that cannot be filed.

“This year of separation is like a day in the swiftness of its passage; and in its lingering freshness, it is like a moment brief. He left and he made all of us orphan; for, he was a father even to his friends”.  

In his remarks, former Minister of Health, Professor Eyitayo Lambo, described Awoniyi as a man who is larger than his frame in life and in death.

He said in the murky waters of Nigerian politics, Chief Awoniyi defined and epitomised principle and novel ideas.

“We may not all accept his ideas and politics but we cannot take away from the man the resoluteness of his convictions, commitment and delligence with which he pursued his principles”.

The event of today is a befitting tribute to a man who gave his best to the service of his people and our nation. The challenge is for us as a people is the need to re-apparise our politics in the light of the ideals that Chief Awoniyi stood for”, he said.

Dignitaries who graced the occasion include, former Minister of National Planning, Chief Silas Daniyan, Major General Jemibewon (Rtd),  Hon. Dino Melaiye, Senator Smart Adeyemi, Halima Alfa, ACF Chairman, Kogi chapter, Secretary General, Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) Col. Hamid Ali (Rtd), Prince Sola Akomode, Abdulrazaq Isa, and JO Yusuf as well as traditional rulers.

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