We will fight Tinubu if he fails to do it right —Odia Ofeimun

Renowned Nigerian poet and intellectual, Odia Ofeimun, has said if President Bola Tinubu fails to deliver on the promise of his office by doing the right thing, the people will turn against him.

Speaking at the January Reading and Writers Dialogue put together by the Abuja chapter of the Association of Nigerian Authors, ANA, Ofeimun asserted that there were several forces, especially from the West, militating against the president’s drive to do that which was right for his people.

He, however, stressed that if out of fear for threats posed by these foreign forces the president failed to put things in order within the country, then it would be the turn of Nigerians to fight him.

“If today, Tinubu tries to do it right, they will fight him, but if because they will fight him, he refuses to do it right; it is our turn to fight him,” Ofeimun declared.

Harping specifically on education which he argued must be made free in Nigeria, Ofeimun said every president should subscribe to free education idea for the benefit of the Nigerian child.

Ofeimun said: “Because in my study of human development, whether in economy or political science classes, I had come to agree that the societies who give free education are more likely to be developed society than others.

“The Chinese today are outstripping the Americans because America is making it difficult; you need to be dripping blood from your body in order to get something good, even in education.

“But you see what Chinese have done is that by keeping the ground level, every child is in a position to contribute to what can wipe out whatever difficulties in the society. They do not have to be supported by state in order to think. As long as they can think, they can outstrip whatever any state affair might put in their way.

“If you are giving a society of 400 farmers and you turn all of them into educated people and you have a sense of technology that can enable every member of that society to contribute to it, they dominate any society. What our leaders are doing by not giving education the kind of outstanding responsibilities that we should do in our society is that they are impoverishing every one of us.”