PRESS RELEASE: MILITARY ELITES HAVE A ROLE IN BUILDING A NEW NATION - PRESIDENT BUHARI

*Soldiers ought to also be public intellectuals

Our country at this time needs a new group of elites consisting of professionals in the military who will join in building a new nation built on high values of integrity, justice and diligence, according to President Muhammadu Buhari.

In a speech delivered over the weekend by Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, SAN at the Armed Forces Command and Staff College, Jaji, in Kaduna state, the President said "the Armed Forces are probably the most visible symbols of national unity and cohesion," in the country. Addressing the audience made up of top military chiefs including service chiefs and new graduates of the College's Senior Course 38, the President told the military, "this is why the responsibility for fighting against all forms of ethnic and religious prejudices is yours."

Pius Adesanmi - It Will Get Worse Before it Gets Better

One argument being pushed by the Federal Government (via Osinbajo et al) and supporters of fuel subsidy removal (appropriate pricing, deregulation, downstreaming, market remedy - they have called the beast so many names my head is spinning) borders on the idea of the impenetrable darkness which always looms before the glorious light at the end of the tunnel. This is a very seductive argument, supported by the great spiritual and literary texts of the world. It is a powerful motif in literature, a recurrent theme in myths and legends: great difficulties, pitch darkness, then, light!

In the great literary mythologies, from the Greeks to the Romans, via Ananse in Ghanaian folk tales and the Tortoise in Yoruba folktales, pitch darkness and the light that follows it at the end of the tunnel are always moderated by one inescapable element: sacrifice. So here is the basic plot of one of the greatest motifs in human imagination: darkness + sacrifice = light. The emphasis is on sacrifice.