NIPR Urges Nigerians to Imbibe Culture of Patriotism
The Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) says lack of patriotism on the side of followers and leaders has largely remained the bane of the nation's development, urging that all citizens should cultivate a deep-rooted spirit of patriotism to move the nation forward.
Vice President of the Institute, Prof. Emmanuel Dandaura gave this advice on Wednesday, October 2 in Abuja at the public presentation of the book, Patriotism: The Nigerian Spirit, an event that also featured Nigerian Patriotism Awards.
Prof. Dandaura who was also the book reviewer expressed dissatisfaction that 64 years after the country's Independence, it has not realised its full potentials on the account of absence of spirit of patriotism on the side of citizens.
He said irrespective of the grouse some persons may have about the management of the nation's affairs, time has come for every citizen to be conscious of their responsibilities to love, support and defend the country.
"As against popular opinion, the major problem we have in this country is really not corruption, not banditry but lack of patriotism. We have corruption because people are not patriotic, we have banditry because people are not patriotic. If you are patriotic, you love the land, you will love the people and would not want to cause them pain and suffering.
"We have bad leadership too because people are not patriotic. So if we can all begin to encourage ourselves to imbibe the spirit of patriotism, most of these challenges we are seeing will begin to disappear, one after the other. So the problem with Nigeria is lack of patronism", he insisted.
While congratulating the author, Dr. Abom Ephraim Okon for the painstaking effort in writing the book which he described as masterpiece, Prof. Dandaura assured the readiness of the Institute to offer support to its members in all their endeavours.
The author, Dr. Okon in his remarks said the book seeks to remind Nigerians the enormity of task before them in raising the bar of national development through patriotism.
