The Challenge As We Saw In The Nigerian Project Was To Restructure The Economy Decisively In The Direction Of A Modern Free Market As An Appropriate Environment For Cultivation Of Freedom And Democracy And The Natural Emergence Of A New Social Order.
Informed By Our Sad Experience Of History, We Require Nothing Short Of A Foundation For Lasting Democracy.
We Have Established A New Basis In Our Country In Which Economic Liberalization Would Continue To Flourish Alongside Democratic Forces And Deregulated Power Structure.
The Return Of Democracy In Our Land Has Indeed Thrown The Problems Of Development Into Bolder Relief.
At The Same, We Need To Remain Sensitive To The Reality That We Are Still An African Society In Which The Majority Of The People And Communities Live Under Severe Deprivations And Afflictions That Are No Fault Of Theirs.
Each One Of Us, And, Indeed, All Those Who Aspire To National Leadership Must Bring Their Own Visions, Views And Styles To The Business Of Reforming Nigeria, And The Search For Solutions.
I Am Not Sure That You, The Younger Generations, Will Like To Go To War That We Went Through. So, We Learn As The Mistakes Are Being Committed.
The Reason Is That Till Date, In Spite Of Advances In Information Technology And Strategies Of Information, The Written Word In The Form Of Books Still Remains One Of Humanity's Most Enduring Legacies.
Our Choice Of A Reform Framework Dictated That We Looked At The Fundamental Assumptions That Had Driven Nigeria's Economy, Society And Policy Hitherto And To Seek Ways Of Either Abandoning Or Transcending Those Assumptions And Their Supporting Institutions.
If You Ask Me To Summarise Our Mission, I Would Put It This Way: We Were A Military Regime That Sought To Lay The Foundations For Freedom And Liberty In A Complex Society.
With Each New Book, The March Of Our National History Takes A Step Forward. When One Is Present At A Book Launch, One Is Bearing Witness To The Birth Of A New Body Of Ideas, To The Coming Into Being Of Another Testimony Of History.
I Believe That Historians And Analysts Of Historical Events Need The Authority Of Facts Supplied By Living Witnesses To The Events, Which They Make Their Subject.
