PHILANTHROPIST and businessman, Paul Erinne, has said Nigeria lost the opportunity to greatness when General Muhammadu Buhari’s military government was overthrown in 1985.
According to the Chairman, Syndicated Metal Industries Limited, the Buhari regime was embroidered in orderliness, discipline, patriotism and rare nationalism.
Speaking at the Emir Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari’s palace, in Ilorin, Kwara State, where he gave out 1,000 bags of 50kg rice in the spirit of Ramadan, as well as five university scholarships to Ilorin indigenes, in commemoration of 25 years of the demise of former Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters, Brig-Gen Tunde Idiagbon.
Erinne said though he never met Idiagbon physically but was bewitched by his down-to-earth nature and his rescue of Nigerians from the abyss of unruliness and indiscipline, saying: “I never met late Idiagbon during his lifetime, but I am happy to be associated with him, even at death.”
According to him, the renewed commitment to the Nigeria project was highly amplified by the former second-in-command who dared all odds to instil discipline in Nigerians that eventually raised the ranking of the country in the comity of nations.
He recalled: “The day the Buhari/Idiagbon government was overthrown, I shut myself in the house for three days. It was then that I realised that Nigeria has entered the dark.”
Describing Idiagbon as synonymous with humility, compassion, integrity, doggedness, discipline and honesty, he teased: “I hope political office holders will imbibe his nationalistic principles to make the nation better.” He explained that the five scholarships were for five youths from Ilorin Emirate to study Engineering courses in any federal universities across Nigeria. According to the Okija-born businessman, the gesture was for the “poorest of the poor.”
