National leader of the All
Progressives Congress, APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu on Thursday said he would be
selling Nigerians falsehood if he was to promise that their daily path would be
lined with rose petals and sweet fragrance.
Tinubu, in his Independence
message also said he would be selling Nigerians false hope if he was to say
nothing but gentle days and tranquil nights awaited them.
He, however, said “This beloved
nation now faces in the right direction. We move closer to the reality of a
greater nation based on a more just and compassionate society. Because of you,
the fine and patriotic people who are this nation, we are better than we were
yesterday but not quite as good as we shall be tomorrow.”
According to him, under the
current APC administration, the nation was now building the institutional
framework and infrastructural networks that would bring forth an era of
beneficial growth and development for all Nigeria and all Nigerians no matter
their current station in life and without regard to their incidence or place of
birth.
“We press onward despite the
unique difficulties and challenges posed this year by the global pandemic and
its attendant economic difficulties. In fact, Nigeria should be proud of how it
decisively managed this challenge. For among the world’s most populous nations,
we rank among the least affected by the scourge. This we owe primarily to the
merciful hand of God but also to the sage actions of government and the civic
responsibility of the people.”
Read Tinubu’s full message below
Three score years ago, our people
determined to amend their political relationship with the world as well as the
relationship among themselves. From the unfairness and limitations inherent in
the colonial situation we claimed our independence to establish our own way
that we might be servile to none. We asserted our independence that we may be
the most populous, most powerful and most prosperous nation in Africa and in
the process lead our continent and our race into a more just and equable condition.
Thus we do not commemorate
Independence Day as some empty ritual. It is not some excuse to begin the 10th
month of the year with a holiday. Instead, it is an annual reminder and
affirmation of the noble and excellent trek upon which we have embarked as a
people. During these 60 years we have passed important milestones and
progressed in many ways. We have endured long nights that skeptics said would
end us. In my own state of Lagos we have transformed what many had written off
as a dying city into a dynamic hub of commerce, openness and infrastructural
development.
Under the current APC
administration, the nation is now building the institutional framework and
infrastructural networks that will bring forth an era of beneficial growth and
development for all Nigeria and all Nigerians no matter your current station in
life and without regard to your incidence or place of birth. We press onward
despite the unique difficulties and challenges posed this year by the global
pandemic and its attendant economic difficulties. In fact, Nigeria should be
proud of how it decisively managed this challenge. For among the world’s most
populous nations, we rank among the least affected by the scourge. This we owe
primarily to the merciful hand of God but also to the sage actions of
government and the civic responsibility of the people.
Yet I would be less than honest
if I did not state we have often stumbled and lost our way at times since we
gained independence. Brother has fought against brother. We spilled blood that
ought not to have been spilled. We have squandered opportunities. We have let
our immense potentials lay idle and stagnant. But not anymore. Those things are
remnants of the past for which we now draw important lessons to guide us to a
more optimistic and fecund tomorrow.
The sixty years Nigeria has stood
as an independent land may seem long in the life of a man, but in the life of a
nation, it has been but a single breath. Wisdom instructs us to love our nation
for it is truly an unfortunate son who hates his own home and family. However,
wise and enlightened it may be to love Nigeria as a nation that is still
insufficient. It only gets us halfway to where we need to go. It does little
good if we love the geopolitical construct named Nigeria but fail to love and
have the utmost compassion for the very people who comprise this land and who
make it a living daily reality by calling themselves Nigerians.
Today, let us not just celebrate
the political space we call Nigeria. Let us celebrate the decent, industrious,
and kind people who make Nigeria what it is and who strive with care and
passion to bring Nigeria closer to what it ought to be. We are a nation and a
people fashioned by a unique history. We bear no shame for our history is no
better or worse than any other nation on the face of the earth. From our
forbearers, we inherited land and its ways and means. We have been entrusted by
generations yet to come to improve upon those ways and means in order to
establish a Nigerian way of life in which all children of this land may
flourish in new ways and one in which the social ills of the past no longer
seek to haunt the broad avenues of our future.
I would be selling you falsehood
if I were to promise that our daily path would be lined with rose petals and
sweet fragrance. I would be selling you false hope if I were to say nothing but
gentle days and tranquil nights await us. However. I tender this sound and
fundamental truth. This beloved nation now faces in the right direction. We
move closer to the reality of a greater nation based on a more just and
compassionate society. Because of you, the fine and patriotic people who are
this nation, we are better than we were yesterday but not quite as good as we
shall be tomorrow.
Thus, we honor our independence
not because it is a day on the calendar. We value this independence because it
allows – in fact, demand of us – that we assess and define ourselves and our
nation as we deem fit. That we define our society, its economy, and political
institutions in a manner that answers the questions we pose to them instead of
responding to the demands of outside forces. We cherish our independence so
that we may build a society according to the humane and progressive values that
animate us, and that we not lie supine and beholden to interests that care
nothing for us, save that we serve them.
We cherish our independence
because we are Nigeria and Nigeria is us. As one, we are greater and more
capable than the sum of our individual parts. During these trying times we
face, many will ask why should I love this nation? What has it given me? It has
given us a large potentially bountiful home. No power on earth can divest your
rights to and in this home. Yet, with ownership comes responsibility. You have
the inalienable right, no duty, to build and improve this home as you see fit.
This is the true meaning of
independence and we should observe this how we treat and relate to one another.
Let us forever join in common purpose and strong bond to build Nigeria as a
citadel of peace, a catalyst of prosperity, and a tower of justice that wherever
they may go in the world Nigerians can hold themselves proud. And wherever they
may be in the world, there one thought is of returning to this fine and
outstanding home we now build for ourselves of our own ingenuity, ideas, and of
our very independence. As long as this earth stands, may Nigeria too stand as
among its leading nations.
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