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Leaders urge faith as Nigeria clocks 44
NIGERIA turns 44 today. The epochal event will, however, be remarkable for its low-key celebrations, perhaps the first time since the nation's glorious birth on October 1, 1960.
At an independence lecture held in abuja yesterday, a presidential aide, Chief Ojo Maduekwe, admitted that Nigeria had for long been hovering between being classified as a failed state or as a failing one. He also advocated a six-zone political structure for the country.
The Federal Government has indicated its resolved to make today's celebration an occasion for reflection on the nation's past, present and the future. Civil Society groups share the opinion, but for a different reason: They want the governing elite to put the brakes on policies that are currently weakening the citizens' purchasing power.
But state governors yesterday urged the nation to recognise the giant strides that have been taken in the past, pull itself together and look forward to a more glorious future.
Lagos State governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in a statement entitled: "Nigeria will rise again", urged Nigerians to challenge themselves and work for a greater nation.
"Tinubu said: "In exactly six years from today, our beloved but beleaguered country will be fifty years old. We would have existed as an independent country for five decades. As we mark the 44th independence anniversary of Nigeria today, I urge us all to reflect soberly on this fact?
"Time is not on our side, Nigeria is too richly blessed to remain poor and underdeveloped. Our people are too endowed in the helpless victims of hunger, mass joblessness, ignorance and disease. There is no excuse for the persistence of economic stagnation in the country given the level of our resource endowment. Now is the time to say no to the current condition of Nigeria. Now is the time to set ourselves the target of saying farewell to poverty in Nigeria come 2010 when Nigerian will be 50."
Tinubu noted that the challenge he was throwing could be herculean. He added, however, that it is not impossible.
It will demand, first and foremost, a visionary leadership with the courage to restructure Nigeria to guarantee equity and justice for all her component parts thus renewing the confidence of all in the idea of Nigeria. Equally critical will be the determination of all Nigerians to support such a patriotic and transparent leadership by making necessary sacrifice to achieve this national objective," he said.
The governor added: "On the occasion of this 44th anniversary, I am confident that Nigeria will rise again. We will overcome our present economic and political travails and fulfil our historic destiny as a beacon of hope for Africa. The important thing is to continue to do everything to protect our democracy. For, in the final analysis the future of Nigeria will depend on the preservation of the right of Nigerians to decide who will govern them in free, fair and transparent elections. Once more I congratulate all Nigerians for the continued unity and stability of Nigeria at 44."
His Kaduna State counterpart, Ahmed Mohammed Makarfi, lamented that the present generation of political class had betrayed the aspirations of the nation's founding fathers.
The Governor who spoke in a goodwill message, marking the Independence anniversary, stated that the founding fathers sacrificed and toiled to ensure that the nation move forward both politically and economically.
He said: "As we celebrate, we should soberly reflect on the lessons of independence and ask ourselves the question: Is Nigeria of today the country that those brave founding fathers of ours who defied all odds and fought for our freedom from colonialism, dreamt of and made sacrifices for?"
The obvious answer to the question, he added, is "No". He said that the founding father's "expectation then was for a country at peace with itself; one that would be the pride of the Black man wherever he might be; one that would lead the African continent, nay the entire black race; a country where no man is oppressed."
He declared: "This unfortunately had not been the case for a greater part of those 44 years, up to May 29, 1999".
Makarfi argued further: "Luckily for us, God as usual intervened and delivered us from the precipice by helping to restore democracy back to the land".
The divine intervention, according to the governor, "should spur us into rededicating ourselves to the realisation of that lofty dream, which the foisting of our national flag for the first time, on October 1, 1960 symbolised."
He added: "As I join all of us in celebrating this momentous occasion, I cannot fail to implore all of us to continue to do all within our powers to ensure that we nurture this democracy that is already taking firm roots so that generations yet unborn would not have to go through the same trauma as we did."
The best way to sustain the fledgling democracy, according to him, is by creating an atmosphere of peace and eschewing violence. He also canvassed tolerance and respect for neighbours.
The governor urged all residents of the state to maintain peace and order adding that that would enable his administration "to maintain its focus and concentration and discharging the onerous responsibilities reposed on it by the peoples' overwhelming mandate in 1999 and 2003."
The Abia State governor, Dr Orji Uzor kalu, urged Nigerians to embrace the virtues of "tolerance, peace with all men and constant gratitude to God".
Kalu noted that Nigeria had lost "a lot of momentum and is still lagging behind due largely to the fact that it has refused to eschew the practice of self degradation as a result of inter and intra tribal skirmishes."
The Ogun State Governor, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, yesterday granted amnesty to four prisoners serving in the state.
The death sentence on one of the lucky persons was commuted to life imprisonment while the remaining three were set free.
A statement by the governor's Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Dare Folarin, said the governor's action was based on the advice of the state Advisory Council on Prerogative of Mercy.
Maduekwe, the Special Adviser to President Olusegun Obasanjo on Legal and Constitutional Matters and former Transport Minister, challenged the audience and, indeed all Nigerians, to fashion out how best the nation could achieve its divine purpose of being black Africa's first super power.
The audience included the Chairman, Board of Trustees of the ruling People's democratic Party, Chief Tony Anenih; and Nigeria's former Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Alhaji Maitama Sule, who presided over the session.
The others were Chief Don Etiebet, the Chairman of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and Chief Vincent Ogbulafor, Secretary General of the PDP.
Maduekwe noted that the country had for years been oscillating between the classification as a failed state or as a failing one.
He said: "Rather than hover on the brink of the League of Failed or Failing States, we must see ourselves as a new can-do nation ready to modernise and lead; a people with faith in ourselves as having the historic responsibility for the premier Black Success story of the Ages."
He added: "It means restoring faith in the institutions of the State as enablers rather than manipulating them for ethnic advantage. It means nurturing a Policy Elite and a robust Reform Coalition that is committed to an Ethic of Responsibility."
Besides his treatise on the critical factors that have kept Nigeria on this ignoble class, the former Minister joined the debate on convocation of a national conference as he canvassed a radical approach that would return the nation to true federalism.
He called for a "Six Zone Structure" for the country.
According to the lawyer-cum politician, who was called to the Bar in
1973, the solution to the trouble with igeria's distorted federalism may not be with abolition of the state structure and rewriting of the Constitution alone.
His words: "It is easy to blame all our problems on a distorted federalism, and in a rather simplistic manner, believe once we re-write the Constitution to pre-Civil War regional autonomy, all will be well! Memories are
short, and such over-simplification masks the real threat to national unity which the former powerful regions as hegemonic blocs were perceived to pose."
He continued: "Whatever may have been the attraction of political expediency in the state creation exercise, there was a genuine problem of what to do with those powerful regions that were that were threatening the centre. A principal reason for the crisis that led to the
overthrow of the Balewa Government and the unfortunate incursion of the military into our political space was
this spectre of very powerful regions baiting the centre and making it so weak and dangerously ineffective."
The presidential aide added: "May be the pendulum has swung too far to the other side, leading again to political instability and fiscal clumsiness, some will say, recklessness on the part of the states. Proliferation of states has
led to the decentralisation of both corruption and poverty. The costs of governance are now far in excess of the goods of governance since many state
governments are nothing more than glorified salary payment centres".
The Campaign for Democracy (CD) and the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) yesterday called on President Olusegun Obasanjo to use the occasion of the anniversary to review his economic policies in the interest of the masses.
The groups, in different statements made available to The Guardian cited the recent increase in fuel prices as a harsh policy and called on the government to revert to their old price regime.
The CD in the statement by its President, Moshood Erubami, urged Nigerians to shun any independence anniversary but rather use the occasion to reflect on the state of the nation and President Obasanjo's government
He said: "The CD reviewed the President Obasanjo's government policy on deregulation which has thrown heavy burden and pains on the citizens and received the recent increase in the prices of petroleum products as another satanic, October 1st, independent gift, it is most insensitive to the groaning of Nigerians and a clear message that the interest of multilateral agencies is more paramount to that of Nigerians who mistakenly elected him into office."
While condemning the fuel price increase, the group urged President Obasanjo to recognise the problems which incessant increases in the products could cause before it became an emergency. It added: "It is one act of a dictator that may foreclose the others he could take, a stitch in time saves nine."
APGA in a statement by its chairman, Samson Olalere, warned that Nigeria's democracy might hit the rock unless a Sovereign National Conference (SNC) is urgently convened.
"The spate of assassination, threats of secession, guerrilla struggle, ethnic cleansing, campus banditry appears to be a subtle revolt against the state of Nigeria as presently constituted, we need to reinvent federalism, we need to purge all our democratic institutions, cultural surgery through value re-orientation as well as create new approach towards achieving progressive intelligence management system that is pro-people for development in a true democracy", the party stated.
The APGA boss, while calling for a review of the present economic policies, said Nigerians should all resolve to restructure the country by convening a special national dialogue devoid of deep-seated prejudices.
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