By Adamu Aminu
The Glory is to God, the celestial, supreme being who lengthened the existence of our beloved nation – Nigeria, adding a year upon the six decades of gaining sovereignty from the hard-grip of British colonialism.
The founding fathers who fought hard for Nigeria’s independence such as; late Ahmadu Bellos, Awolowos, Azikiwes, Tabawa Balewas was whose spirits are still hovering alive on Nigeria’s horizon.
Still, they deserved encomiums, praises and imaginary garlands hanging around the neck of their blessed memory.
Their names and legacies have shielded their reputations from vanishing into indivisibility.
They laid down a solid foundation which Nigeria of today was built upon, devoid of inconsiderate behaviour of material gains or amassing wealth for posterity benefits.
They embrace nation’s building instead of glamorizing pocket-building.
Throughout their cut-short tenure, they exemplified purposeful leadership, unity, oneness and inculcates moods of togetherness to their large subjects and the nation at large.
In consolidating their nationalistic engagements, they tried hard to the barest minimum for not openly allowed tribal or ethnic sentiments to becloud their sense of reasoning upon the mission of nation-building.
No single day in Nigeria will passes-bye without made mentioning their names or offers prayers for the super-patriotic sacrifices, which they made to see their fatherland prospered and stand out among the International community.
They led a free-stress Nigeria, under a flourishing peace and booming economy benefitted by all and sundry.
The Sardauna’s, Awolowo’s and their contemporaries, wholeheartedly paved the way for the upcoming generation to continue upholding their solid commitment to nation-building.
But alas, the commitment to carry on the legacies seemingly lost somewhere at nowhere which most of them nowadays, crops of leaders goes self-centred.
Even though, within those years to date, Nigeria has withstood various trials and tests of time under various political, administrative and economic challenges.
Some past leaders have done exceptionally well, while some are like a farming tractor, they worked hard and consumed thick fuel from the national tank.
Nevertheless, there is no gain-saying at 61, Nigeria has undergone relative transformations in all various facets of human, political and economic development.
But to be frank, the presumed growth achieved within the more than six decades of Nigeria’s attainment of full sovereignty, there’s nothing to write home about, in contrast with the God-given endowments of human and natural resources.
Moreover, in comparison with some developing nations regarded as peers to Nigeria such as; Malaysia, Brazil, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and others, are economical, prosperous by far ahead of Nigeria.
Nigeria at 61 deserved to be more developed, ahead of how it is presently.
This Day of Nigeria’s Independence anniversary is very much worthy of a celebration, particularly to the political gluttons – who were by the virtue of their physical well being under the auspices of political trajectory were regarded as true Nigerians.
Those who are also seen as untouchables, gainfully engaged under customized Nigeria’s type of democracy – the government by all, for all and benefited by few.
At 61 years of Independence, a democratic dispensation was luckily and advantageous to political super-achievers who were transformed into low-key, political tycoons, yet to be discovered by Forbes Magazine.
At this moment for the 61st anniversary, recycle old hands and tired legs refused to bow out from the stages of power, while the elected youth haven’t demonstrated their youthful exuberance to reasonable performance.
Even though the rotten fish start from the head, but the blame should not be only apportioned to leaders, commoners should also shoulder a reasonable fraction of blames in this respect.
This is based on the fact that from the 1960s to date, most of the power brokers who control Nigeria at their fingertips were the children of commoners.
On this day of Nigeria’s independence anniversary, deserve to be a time of sober reflection, not for merriment.
A sobering moment gave how the nation – Nigeria is sandwiched between economic regression and catastrophic phenomena such as terrorism and banditry.
A dire situation that deservedly needs prayers and pragmatic synergy to untied out, our beloved nation, Nigeria from the stings of the barbed wire which has for long ensnared its physical well being.
Engagements of fighting corruption must continue to be a topmost priority to minimized the surging tides of official thievery from the public coffers.
This will discourage potential looters-in-waiting of their daydreaming of becoming looters-on-duty someday.
And we deserve to be praying unhesitatingly for God Almighty to roll back the storms trailing our nation’s bleak future.
So that God will grease our wisdom, arms and shoulders and gives us strength to resuscitate our malnourished economy, fight terrorism and banditry and also awaken our nationalistic consciousness to love our country more than ever before.
The greedy names will be easily forgotten, while the names of our heroes past should be not only remembered but will be written indelibly with golden ink.
Happy Independence Anniversary!
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Sky Daily
