NOTABLE QUOTES

The first post on this segment of the blog would feature notable quotes from 'THE PLATFORM 2016: THE ECONOMIC VALUE OF NIGERIA’ and how Nigeria can be made to work.'

QUOTE OF THE DAY: ‘I must study politics and war, that my sons may have the liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history and naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture, in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain’- John Adams

‘The first thing done by God was to create, creativity is in your DNA…what have you brought to the table, in Nigeria? More critical than our raw materials is the development of the human mind.’ –Bolanle Austen-Peters on “Creativity, Innovation and Development”.

‘The Kabiyesi style of leadership is wrong for democracy- we need to be able to ask questions…If there’s a New York, there must be an Old York. We need a new Nigeria, one that works. We need to be creatively destructive, destroying the old ways and creating new ones.’- Rev. Sam Adeyemi on “Unleashing the Potentials for Wealth Creation”.

‘With all that has happened in Nigeria, millions of us should be on the street, but we are too docile! We need to wake up…how can 2,000 people dominate 180 million? Do you know the answer? It is because you are all docile! I hope you know the constitution governs your secular life, just as the Bible dominates your spiritual life, so why are you so ignorant? What does section 4 of the constitution say? I’d pay anyone who gets it 100 naira (uproar form the audience)…we need to be rescued from the political class of the elite, the church has the greatest role to play in rescuing Nigeria.’- Dr. Olisa Agbakoba on “The Macro Economic Challenges and Constitutional Constraints Impeding Nigeria’s Economic Development”.

‘I saved 500 million naira on building lodges, Anambra doesn’t have a presidential lodge because the president doesn’t live in Anambra. When President Obasanjo came to Anambra, he slept in my house, I gave them the key for one week. There is so much waste in our system…My wife would come to me, Peter the people are not happy. My dear wife, I would say, my job is not to make the people happy- I’ll leave that to entertainers; my job is to make right decisions…If you cannot find someone to make the governor’s bed in Awka, the governor would sleep on the floor…one of the reasons for which I was impeached was saving money without permission. If you want to see me, I’ll come to your house because government house is not a restaurant! If I have to sleep in a hotel and pay 250,000 naira, I have a problem: I’ll be awake all night and unable to sleep!’ –Peter Obi on Cutting the Cost of Governance

‘The knowledge and ingenuity of a nation’s leaders make the difference’- Olusegun Adeniyi on Between Luggage Economy and Knowledge Economy

'The question we should ask ourselves is how we got to the place where human life has become so dimished as to shift from defining assets as human beings to defining it in terms of mere property...I am a priest, the major commodity I market is hope and hope can never be in recession...we're hemorrhaging because the centripetal forces are pulling us in different directions.'

Bishop Kukah on Nigeria's Gangrene:Amputation or Surgery? Thoughts on healing a traumatized nation.

What is the economic value of Nigeria? Very huge, very vast, but unknown! We have no data. When you visit a big man in Nigeria and you're leaving, he must give you something. You see that something, is your corruption!

Prof Osaghae-Eghosa on First Things First:Growing an Economy on Nothing?

The PLATFORM NIGERIA is convened by Pastor Poju Oyemade, Senior Pastor of Covenant Christian Centre and usually holds on the 1^st of October.

More notable quotes next week Friday.

Which of the above is your best quote?