Distinguished leaders of government, members of the diplomatic community, representatives of security and law-enforcement agencies, traditional and religious leaders, distinguished guests, fellow Rotary members, ladies and gentlemen:

It is an honour to welcome you to the “All Nigeria Rotary Peace Summit.”

The question before us is how to come together, work toward a shared national future, and achieve true and lasting peace.

Nigeria has enormous potential. We have contributed to peace and stability across Africa, including through our work with the Economic Community of West African States and United Nations peacekeeping and Peace Support operations.

Our work in Liberia and other parts of Africa shows that we have the experience and ability to help prevent and manage conflict beyond our borders.

Now it is time to turn those energies inward — to bring our commitment to building peace among our neighbors and the world back home.

But we cannot impose peace. We must nurture it from the very roots of our society so it may grow into a great tree that will feed and shelter all of us under its protective embrace.

As a member of Rotary, when I consider this idea, I look to the philosophy of Positive Peace.

Peace, through this lens, is so much more than the absence of violence. To achieve true and lasting peace, we must consider the attitudes, institutions, and structures that create and sustain peaceful societies.

Here in Nigeria, meaningful peace cannot rely on our security forces and government institutions alone. It requires every level of society to come together for the betterment of all.

To grow Positive Peace from the ground up, Rotary starts from the very foundation of life, as we have done here.
In 2022, Rotary began a program called, “Together for Healthy Families in Nigeria.”

Members of Rotary here in Nigeria and as far away as Germany partnered with federal and state health ministries to make giving birth safer for both mother and child.

The program has helped expectant mothers across three states and the capital receive better and more frequent prenatal care.

Community health workers made nearly 60,000 visits to homes of expectant mothers and spoke with them and their families. We supplied 158 health facilities with contraceptives, medicine, and equipment.

We have already seen positive outcomes. Maternal deaths were reduced by 77%, and newborn deaths were reduced by 45% at supported facilities.

There is more work to do, but we are making progress. This is one way we plant the seeds of peace in Nigeria and around the world — we listen to the community, work with people so they can make their own lives better, and we stay committed to our goals.

With each child born safely to a healthy mother, we ease the burden carried by the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare. We give families a greater sense of safety and security.

This is the beginning of Positive Peace. But members of Rotary do not stop once the seeds of peace are planted.

Since 2020, Nigeria has been free of the deadly grip of the wild poliovirus, which paralyzed and sometimes killed children when their lives had barely begun. And we continue to work with our friends at the World Health Organization and others to keep it that way and address the more recent outbreaks of variant poliovirus.

Rotary also builds peace directly. Members of Rotary clubs across Nigeria devote themselves to building peace every day.

And the year after Nigeria was declared wild polio-free, Rotary worked with Makerere University in Uganda to open a Peace Center, where students — called Peace Fellows — can learn how to build lasting peace both here in Nigeria and across Africa.

Over the years, more than 75 Rotary Peace Fellows have come from Nigeria. Some of our Peace Fellows are even here with us today.

I tell you this not to advertise Rotary (although we can always use new members). I tell you this because I want you to know that Rotary is already a quiet partner in peacebuilding — not only around the world — but here in our shared home.

As members of Rotary, we are not soldiers, ambassadors, or diplomats. We bring people together to find common purpose through service to others. We are here for Nigeria, and we are here to stay.

This year, I have called on every member of Rotary to Create Lasting Impact, and today, my brothers and sisters of Nigeria, I ask the same of every one of us.

I ask us to look at every level of society in Nigeria and consider how we can make all our lives better — not only today, but far into the future of this great nation. We may not speak the same language, worship the same way, or live the same way, but our nation’s future depends on all of us working together.

This summit is an opportunity to turn our shared commitment to peace into practical action — to take mere words and transform them into a bright future for us and all our children.

To my dear friends and family of Rotary here today, I challenge you to make peacebuilding in Nigeria our legacy of lasting impact.

As I have said to the Rotary world time and time again, we must consider how everything we do contributes to peace and pursue that peace purposefully and deliberately.

Rotary can help build confidence between institutions and communities, strengthen public trust, and ease the burden of everyday life that makes peacebuilding that much harder … but we must do so with purpose.

And before we can Create Lasting Impact in Nigeria, we must first have the courage to change ourselves, whether we are members of Rotary or not.

We cannot continue to do what we have always done and expect our great tree of peace to magically sprout from the ground. We must nurture our country and ourselves with all our being.

Give yourselves permission to be changed by what you see and hear at this summit.

That is how lasting impact is achieved — through people who are willing to change, institutions that are prepared to work for everyone, and communities that have the capacity to sustain progress.

And once we allow ourselves to change, we open ourselves to a new future — a future where the circumstances of someone’s birth do not determine their access to justice, opportunity, or dignity.

A future where differences are respected, where violence is rejected, and where we all come together, not as different groups in competition, but as Nigerians in harmony.

As we begin this summit, let us commit to more than resolutions and declarations. Let us commit to stability through change.

Remember that our true measure of success is not the words we share among ourselves today, but the impact of our actions that lasts generation after generation.

And if our commitment to peace is true — if our capacity for change is enough — our children, and their children after them, will enjoy the fruits of our labor under our great tree of peace — protected, safe, and free.

Thank you.

Veteran journalist and Chairman of Gaskia Media Limited, Dare Babarinsa, has called on Nigeria to sustain its informal power-rotation arrangement between the North and South, arguing that the system remains important for political stability and national unity.

Babarinsa said the presidency should return to the North in 2031 and move back to the South in 2039, maintaining that the arrangement should remain in place until Nigerians develop a more suitable alternative.

He made the position known on Monday, November 2, while delivering a public lecture at the Press Centre, Iyaganku, Ibadan, as part of activities marking the 60th anniversary of the Oyo State Council of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ).

Speaking on the theme of Nigeria’s political arrangement and the future of the media, Babarinsa acknowledged criticisms of the rotational presidency, particularly from those who believe that every qualified Nigerian should be allowed to contest for the highest political office regardless of region.

However, he argued that Nigeria’s political circumstances make power rotation a practical arrangement for maintaining stability, even if it may not always produce the most suitable candidate.

According to him, the arrangement emerged from political negotiations ahead of the return to civilian rule in 1999, following the deaths of former military Head of State, General Sani Abacha, and the presumed winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, Chief Moshood Abiola.

Babarinsa recalled that after Abacha’s death in 1998, General Abdulsalami Abubakar assumed leadership and introduced a transition programme aimed at ending military rule by May 29, 1999.

He said the death of Abiola, who was detained by the military government, created concerns about the political future of the Yoruba people and influenced discussions over the region that should produce Nigeria’s first civilian president after military rule.

The journalist disclosed that he was among members of the Idile Oodua resistance movement who supported the position that the South-West should produce the first president under the new democratic arrangement.

He said he was subsequently mandated by members of the group to consult the late Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade, who told him that traditional rulers across the country were also holding consultations on the matter.

According to Babarinsa, the discussions contributed to the emergence of two Yoruba presidential candidates in the 1999 election: former President Olusegun Obasanjo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Chief Olu Falae, who contested under the Alliance for Democracy and All Peoples Party coalition.

He also recalled that former Vice-President Alex Ekwueme disagreed with the arrangement, arguing that the South-East could not be bound by an agreement reached principally between political interests in the North and South-West.

Babarinsa said he agreed with Ekwueme’s interpretation that power should rotate between the North and South rather than among the six geopolitical zones.

He explained that the arrangement had continued through successive administrations, including the emergence of former President Goodluck Jonathan following the death of President Umaru Yar’Adua and the subsequent election of former President Muhammadu Buhari.

With President Bola Tinubu currently in office, Babarinsa argued that the existing arrangement should be sustained, with power returning to the North after the current administration and subsequently moving back to the South.

To support his argument, he compared Nigeria’s power-sharing arrangement with the confessional system adopted in Lebanon in 1943, under which key political offices were allocated to different religious communities to promote political balance.

He said Nigeria could learn from such arrangements, insisting that political compromises sometimes become necessary in countries with diverse ethnic, religious and regional interests.

“If we intend to keep Nigeria, then we need to make this special arrangement work until future generations are able to make a better arrangement,” he said.

Babarinsa reflects on Ibadan’s journalism legacy

Beyond the political question, Babarinsa used the lecture to examine the history of journalism in Ibadan and the contribution of the city to the development of Nigeria’s media industry.

He described Ibadan as a major centre of political and media influence, noting that its newspapers had produced some of the country’s most prominent journalists, editors and public commentators.

He recalled the establishment of the Nigerian Tribune in 1949 by Chief Obafemi Awolowo and the creation of the Sketch newspaper group in 1964 by the then Premier of the Western Region, Chief Ladoke Akintola.

He also highlighted the contributions of prominent journalists, including Felix Adenaike, Segun Osoba and Peter Ajayi, whom he described as the Three Musketeers of the Nigerian media during the Second Republic.

According to him, the trio wielded considerable influence in the industry through their leadership positions at the Tribune and Sketch newspaper groups.

Babarinsa also acknowledged the contributions of former journalists and columnists, including Alhaji Lateef Jakande, Chief Bola Ige, Chief Olabisi Onabanjo, Aare Afe Babalola and Dr Tai Solarin.

He said the history of journalism in Ibadan was closely connected to the political development of the country, recalling the debates on issues such as the International Monetary Fund loan, diarchy and rotational presidency.

The journalist urged members of the profession to preserve that tradition by ensuring that the media remained a platform for informed public debate and the promotion of ideas capable of strengthening Nigeria.

Media organisations urged to embrace digital transformation

Addressing the challenges facing the industry, Babarinsa warned that traditional media organisations must urgently adapt to the changing media environment or risk losing relevance.

He said the internet had disrupted conventional news production and distribution, creating new opportunities while also allowing unregulated online platforms to compete with established media organisations.

According to him, several traditional newspapers have established online platforms, but their digital presence has not translated into the level of revenue needed to sustain their operations.

He cited the decline of once-dominant media organisations such as the Daily Times and Sketch as examples of the changes that have reshaped the industry.

Babarinsa recalled that Sketch newspaper had a daily circulation of about 60,000 copies during the 1970s and 1980s but had since ceased publication, with its former premises converted into a shopping mall.

He also expressed concern over declining newspaper readership among young Nigerians, warning that a society with an increasingly uninformed population could struggle to appreciate and defend democracy.

The Gaskia Media chairman said media organisations must follow their audiences into the digital space and develop business models that can sustain quality journalism.

He disclosed that his organisation had also decided to strengthen its online presence through the publication of a digital magazine, beginning with an online news blog.

Journalists urged to defend democracy and uphold professional standards

Babarinsa further reminded journalists of their role in Nigeria’s democratic development, particularly during the struggle against military rule.

He said members of the Nigerian press had suffered imprisonment, exile and other forms of persecution in the fight for the restoration of democracy, with some journalists paying the ultimate price.

He maintained that journalists therefore had a responsibility to protect the democratic system and ensure that the country’s electoral processes remained credible.

With the 2027 general election approaching, he urged media professionals to play their part by providing accurate information and encouraging informed public participation.

The Independent National Electoral Commission has scheduled the presidential and National Assembly elections for January 16, 2027, while governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections are fixed for February 6, 2027.

Babarinsa said journalists must remain committed to the fundamental principles of the profession, stressing that factual accuracy should remain central to news reporting while allowing room for responsible advocacy.

He urged journalists to advocate for the national interest, rather than restrict their work to positions that may be politically convenient.

Calls for greater inclusion of young journalists and women

Looking towards the future, Babarinsa called for greater opportunities for young journalists and women in the profession, saying the industry must deliberately prepare a new generation of media leaders.

He cited the careers of prominent journalists who assumed major editorial and management positions at relatively young ages, including Peter Enahoro, Olusegun Osoba, Yemi Ogunbiyi, Yakubu Mohammed, Ray Ekpu and Adamu Ciroma.

According to him, the history of Nigerian journalism demonstrates that young professionals have consistently played important roles in driving the industry forward.

He urged established media practitioners to listen to younger colleagues, particularly members of Generation Z, and create opportunities for them to contribute to the future of the profession.

Babarinsa also called for more deliberate efforts to bring women into leadership positions, noting that the industry could no longer remain dominated by men.

He expressed optimism about the future of journalism, despite concerns over poor remuneration, declining newspaper circulation and competition from digital platforms.

The veteran journalist concluded by urging the profession to embrace change, drawing attention to the need for innovation in newspaper production, technology and audience engagement.

Quoting a principle he attributed to Professor Ladipo Adamolekun, Babarinsa said the media industry must adapt to changing realities to remain relevant.

“Adapt or Die!” he declared.

Bola Bolawole questions Nigeria’s democratic future, citing poverty, illiteracy, corruption and political rivalry as obstacles to credible elections

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