The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), John Odigie-Oyegun, has called on Nigerians to maintain efforts towards doing the right thing.
Odigie-Oyegun stated that, as against the perception that the concept of change was about road construction and provision of electricity, he believed that it (change) was a resolve not to return to the “bad old past.”
The APC national chairman spoke on Thursday at a reception where he was conferred with the Distinguished Political Leadership Award by the Benin National Congress in Benin, Edo.
“For as long as we, Nigerians, have the wrong type of morality, the wrong type of ethics, not all the roads in this world will get us out of the economic morass we have plunged ourselves into.
“Change takes time and consistency of application and the resolve not to go back to the bad old days.”
Oyegun, who maintained that the Buhari administration met a “totally collapsed economy,” however, assured Nigerians that the President was doing his best to bring Nigeria back to the path of progress in order for the country to attain its vision.
“We took over a totally collapsed country. The hope is that things have started to solidify. Things have started to concretise; the economy has started to grow.
“It is not a switch; it is something that will take time. But once we are there, this nation will never experience the type of recession we had in the past,” he stated.
“Until Buhari, we were a laughing stock. Today, we are gaining respectability. So, it is important that we do not lose that momentum,” Odigie-Oyegun added.
Earlier, the President of the Congress, Aiyamenkhue Edokpolo, had said that the award was bestowed only on exceptional icons who had shown patriotism in the face of numerous challenges.
Edokpolo explained that the former governor demonstrated exemplary and selfless leadership during Nigeria’s struggle for democracy and as a former civil servant.