Toyin Falola: 70 as the age of reckoning, By Olusegun Obasanjo

May this new age of yours, my professor, brother and friend, be blessed with health and wealth and many good and good things. And may we finish strong and finish well by witnessing the goodness of God to make Nigeria great in our lifetime. Congratulations and many happy returns today. I will be with you again when you are 80 and will be in the Nigeria we all want.

My professor, brother and friend, Toyin Falola,

Happy 70th birthday today. As someone who has preceded you in chronological time, please allow me to welcome you into the septuagenarian circle. My gratitude goes to God who has given you all the blessings and blessings. Arriving in biblical times is not an easy journey. Our existential challenges as human beings, and more critically as Nigerians, are many, and more so, for people like you who shoulder many responsibilities as scholars, cultural custodians, elders in their own right, statesmen, and public intellectuals. I must say that I am very grateful for your unceasing intervention in Nigeria as a country. Nigeria needs intellectuals, professionals and patriots; those who can argue with him to push progress that seems too long. And you have succeeded in living in the best tradition of patriotic interrogation.

Nigeria means a lot to me, on a level that most people still fail to understand. And it is clear to me, from the many interventions you have made, that the country is also very important to you. I know it takes courage to wade into the waters of national discourse in this great country of ours. It also takes a lot of wisdom to understand and be able to solve the thorny problems we have been dealing with for years. I thank you for making the decision to not be silent and just bask in the glory of your well-deserved achievement as a global scholar and distinguished intellectual. You stay in the water, cold or warm.

I doubt that, having become an elder, I have much to say. But allow me to instruct you clearly that the mark of 70 years is the age of reckoning. This is the phase that brings problems into relief – what has been, what can happen and what can’t. It’s time to take stock of where we came from and what lies ahead. This is the phase where, in cultural and spiritual terms, the hoary head becomes an exemplar of values. We are both at the point where our sociocultural value framework is almost a relic in the context of the value revaluation of the current generation. So, we come to the point of the Jewish elders, in the Book of Ezra, lamenting the foundation of the new temple from the perspective of the beauty and glory of Solomon’s temple. But, as our people say, Àgbà kì í wà lộ́jà, kórí ớme tuntun wọ́.

May this new age of yours, my dear professor, brother and friend, be blessed with health and wealth and many good and good things. And may we finish strong and finish well by witnessing the goodness of God to make Nigeria great in our lifetime. Congratulations and many happy returns today. I will be with you again when you are 80 and will be in the Nigeria we all want. cheering.

Olusegun Obasanjo (GCFR) is the former President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.