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Nigeria At 49, Fashola Urges Rededication To Eradicating Social Vices

Oct 1, 2009 - As Nigeria marks her 49th Independence Anniversary, Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN) on Thursday charged the people to rededicate themselves to eradicating social vices that tend to diminish the nation and put a clog in the wheel of progress and development of the country.

According to Governor Fashola who spoke through his Deputy, Princess Sarah Adebisi Sosan at the National Day Parade held at the Police College, Ikeja, inspite of her very many challenges; Nigeria remains the people’s only country and greatest asset.

He added that with the Independence Anniversary, the time has come for a reinvestment in Health, Education and most importantly, the people towards achieving the rebirth of hope for the nation to her rightful place as the giant of Africa.

He urged everyone to pause and give a thought to where the nation ought and should be in the scheme of world affairs, adding that the founding fathers from their vision wanted Nigeria to grow to become a nation to reckon with in the scheme of world affairs.

Governor Fashola explained that given the level of development achieved in Nigeria by its founding fathers with much less resources than it is blessed with today, the country should be a force to reckon with in World Economic ranking today.

“Her abundant natural and human resources, immediately put her in the rank of nations like China and as Africa’s most populous nation, she should be in political leadership of this continent. This is because Economic power has become an important and indeed, a defining characteristic in the evaluation of a nation’s position in the World’s order of power”, he added.

Governor Fashola said the occasion of the Independence Day affords opportunity to reflect on the evolution of Nigeria as a nation with goals and aspirations within a rapidly World Economic Order.

He stressed that it affords opportunity to reflect on where the founding fathers set out to be as an independent nation on the 1st of October, where they are now and where the nation ought to be and should be.

He said in order to know where the nation set out to be on the day it accepted freedom, the people must fall back to the vision of noble Nigerian founding fathers like Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Sir Ahmadu Bello who stood on the threshold of history and propounded a vision of liberation from poverty from hunger and from man’s inhumanity to man.

The Governor stressed that the late Great Zik of Africa promoted education in the Eastern Region when he was Premier and also when he became the first President of Independent Nigeria and who along with his colleagues had a vision to liberate the country from the shackles of hunger, poverty, illiteracy and disease.

He said late Chief Obafemi Awolowo also had a similar vision which saw him recording achievements which still stand till today as a legacy yet to be surpassed by any government or individual in government.

Said he: “Our founding fathers believed in true Federalism as a tool to achieving their vision. The Regions were the focal points of governance as they promoted competition in all spheres. In their attempt to liberate the nation from hunger and economic destitution, they promoted agricultural projects at the regional level”.

“The groundnut pyramids in the Northern, the Palm Plantations in the Eastern and the Cocoa and Rubber Plantation in Western and Mid Western Regions fuelled the nation’s economy and strengthened her currency to the level of parity with the strongest currencies in the world then. They believed strongly that our diversity could be the strongest point of our unity”

He said regrettably, oil which should have been the greatest asset of Nigeria and which has uplifted nations globally has become its undoing such that internally, almost all systems have broken down or are in the danger of doing so.

While paying tribute to late Chief Gani Fawehinmi (SAN) and acknowledging his contribution to the Nigerians nation in the course of its 49 years of nationhood, Governor Fashola said his death can only be a rallying point for a rededication of Nigerians to the development of the nation.

The ceremony also witnessed a march past para-military agencies, voluntary organizations and selected school students and attracted dignitaries like the members of the State Executive Council and traditional rulers.