By Israel Joel
Former Nigeria Ambassador to Netherlands Professor Mary Lar on Sunday lamented the spate of insecurity ravaging the country from all fronts saying Nigerians have abandoned what is right and embrace wrong values.
Professor Lar who is the wife of the late pioneer National Chairman of People’s Democratic Party Chief Solomon Lar further said it is difficult to explain how Nigeria gets to this abysmal level adding that evil has gripped the nation while the fear of God has been relegated to the background.
Professor Lar who clocked 86 years on Sunday appealed to those in positions of authority to find an urgent solution to the myriad of problems confronting the nation adding that things are no longer what they used to be”.
She said ” I can’t just explain how we get to this level, things are terribly bad, killing pervade the land, there’s hunger, our highways have become dens of kidnappers and other undesirable elements. We are no more our brother’s keeper. What is happening to our nation?” She lamented.
“Nigeria of the past is not the same as of today, today there’s so much hunger and suffering in the land. It looks as if Nigeria suddenly abandoned what is right and pick up what is wrong. Nobody care again about the way we live. We need to understand why we are here on earth, we are made in the image of God, if we are made in the image of God then we must respect God by honoring all human beings.
“There’s no one that is made in the image of God that doesn’t know what is right or wrong. The question we need to ask ourselves is that are we doing what is right, we keep blaming one another but no one is doing what is right, it is unfortunate.
“When we love God we would have respect for our fellow human being. All our religious practices will end at zero if we are discriminating against one another. Our population and ethnicities supposed to bring us together to build up our nation but we are not using these to the advantage of our nation” she said.
Professor Lar tasked the political class to embrace the tenet of democracy and put the interest of all into consideration adding the country can still regain its lost glory if those in leadership positions and followers do the right things.
On education, She said “When my husband was the governor of Plateau State, we had great concern. So, we thought about making the government inclusive for citizens, where everyone could be involved.
It was our desire for citizens to feel the impact of government and, one by one, my husband was involving every single ethnic group in the state, including in the area of appointments. We discovered that there are about 50 ethnic groups in Plateau State and it was not easy to rule and please everyone, but he tried as much as possible to involve them in government.
COVID-19 vaccine: Plateau Govt. trains 4, 296 health workers
So, one day, he was going home from the office and he met some children in the rain.
He felt for them. That made him stop and say to them, ‘I will plan something for you because you all are supposed to be in school but look at how you are busy rearing cattle in this rain.
’ When he returned home, he discussed that with me and we came up with the idea of nomadic education. Luckily, I was a lecturer at the university at the time and we were able to develop a curriculum for nomadic education.
