…Ogunbiyi, Adeniyi inducted NAL fellows

By Prince Okafor

LAGOS—THE Nigerian Academy of Letters, NAL, yesterday, decried the incessant killings and violence across the country, saying that the country is now driven by pristine ideologies, inherited animosities, violent agitations and human merchandizing.

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President of the academy, Prof. Francis Egbokhare, said this during the 21st convocation and investiture ceremony of new fellows in Lagos, with the theme: Religion and Morality in a Secular State.

The academy inducted 36 new members, admitted six regular and two honorary fellows to the College of Fellows.

In his opening remark, Egbokhare lamented that it is no longer a matter of controversy that Nigeria is besieged by exponential decay and a new primitivism.

He noted that the subject of religion in Nigeria’s polity has been the preoccupation of analysts and intellectuals in the last decade.

His words: “Earlier in June this year, we organised a conference on the concept of Nigerianness. The idea was to establish pathways, interfaces and convergences in a bid to find counter-narratives to the pervading dissonances in our polity, in addition to finding common grounds for a national ideology.

“Violence is the new religion and killing is the trending business. The fundamental principles of our culture have shifted dangerously to the extent that we are now driven by pristine ideologies, inherited animosities, violent agitations and human merchandising, all leading to the loss of human dignity, desecration of life and altered consciousness.

“There is a raging war. We are at war with the truth; we are at war with logic; we are at war with the intellect; we are afraid of success; we hate good ideas and loathe good people. Statesmen have become warlords and warlords have become the new heroes.”

Besides, he said: “Gangsters are the new political elites, the military has transmuted to militias and militias are being heralded as nationalists.

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“We are perfecting ignorance, massifying mischief, democratizing violence. “The youths of our land are the aged who call for war and the aged are the young ones who have migrated to social media and foreign lands from where they demand entitlements. Nigerians have displayed exceptional ingenuity in developing business built on magical realism. Our elites have ported from reality to undead world of delusions where we mystify inanities and glorify inconsequentials.”

“The wise ones in Nigeria are religious bigots, as agberos and robbers have become our cultural leaders. We are perverted in oddity, entrenched in an old story that is not functioning properly and we are refusing to learn a new one.”

Meanwhile, the Pro-chancellor of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Dr Yemi Ogunbiyi and Editorial Board Chairman, ThisDay Newspapers, , Mr Olusegun Adeniyi were inducted as Awardee of Honorary of Fellows.

Those present at the event are former Commissioner of Information, Edo State, Mr. Loius Odion; Chairman of The Nation’s Editorial Board, Mr. Sam Omaseye,  GM/Editor in Chief of Vanguard Newspapers, Mr. Gbenga Adefaye; Deputy Managing Director, ThisDay Newspapers, Mr. Kayode Komolafe; Vice-Chancellor, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Prof. Eyitope Ogunbodede, and Prof. UNILAG Vice-Chancellor, Oluwatoyin Ogundipe among others.

Vanguard