By Monsuru Olowoopejo
CHIEF Tola Adeniyi, a former Managing Director of Daily Times of Nigeria, Plc, in this interview, bares his mind on the challenges confronting the nation and possible solutions. Adeniyi, who is set to launch a book referencing some of his media works gave reasons for making the publication at this time.
Excerpts:
Why did you publish this book at this time, considering the state of the country?
I am bowing to pressure from friends, colleagues and the younger generation, who want to know about Tola Adeniyi and other details about the country and wish to have it in a permanent form. Journalism is history written in a hurry, but once they have it in a book form, they can always refer to it. In over 50 years of writing, I wrote over 20, 000 articles. The first edition is ‘Nigeria in the belly of Vultures’. The second edition is titled: ‘Nigeria in the belly of Vampires’ and the last edition is ‘’Nigeria in the belly of the Military: 1966 to 1999’.
With the topic of your book, Nigeria in the belly of Vultures, what does ‘vulture’ symbolise?
It means those that have killed Nigeria. This is because vultures do not eat fresh food but dead animals. Some people saw that Nigeria was dying and they began to feed on it. They have gone beyond vulture and that was why I titled the second series of my book, ‘Nigeria in the belly of Vampires’. They have started sucking the blood of the country and commenced their activities before President Muhammadu Buhari came to power. And rather than the president ending their activities completely, they became emboldened. We have vultures everywhere. Aside the local vultures, the British and the Americans are on the throats of Nigeria and they are ready to suck the blood of the country. I think Britain and the United States of America, USA, are among the vultures sucking the nation.Read full interview here.
