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By Emma Ovuakporie
As Nigeria marks its 60th independence anniversary, we should all thank God for the gift of life but with the current administration, Nigeria really has little or nothing to celebrate. It is noteworthy that while the APC government is spending undisclosed humongous millions of Naira to celebrate, most Nigerians are not celebrating but quietly pondering their situation at home.
Nigeria’s 60th independence anniversary is a period for sober reflection and instead of joining in 365 days of celebration with no disclosure of how much is again being wasted on frivolous expenditures that leave out the voiceless majority, we must all ponder how fake promises and populist pretensions got us to where we are today.
Today, the PDP years appear far more peaceful and comfortable than we now see; unemployment and poverty has now become a sad blighted to numerous homes, towns and villages across the federation even as abductions and killings by rampaging herdsmen, foreign bandits and armed robbers have become daily occurrences in many towns, villages and along the highway.
Today, every Nigerian citizen should honestly ask himself or herself whether life was this cruel and vicious under the PDP.
In 2014, just before APC came in, along with its reckless nepotism in employments and vicious sectionalism in federal appointments, the leader of APC told the nation that ‘Nigeria had nothing to celebrate on Independence Day’.
As reported by various mass media platforms on September 28 and September 29, 2014, the APC Leader said: “Today, the nation staggers beneath the weight of trouble multiplied by hardship. Peace and unity seem to have yielded the moment to violence and discord. We exist as a political unit on a map but we do not prosper as brothers and sisters in one nation, under one flag and pursuant to one accord.”
While today’s sad realities are far much worse, I urge all the people of Nigeria not to lose hope but to emulate the unyielding hope of the people of Kabba-Bunu/Ijumu federal constituency who firmly believe that with the gracious blessings of God Almighty, the genuine people-centred governance that we stand for, will become enthroned in due course.
This is not exactly the right day to worry about why they prefer to spend $1.9 billion on a rail line, 50 kilometres inside Niger Republic or to worry about why they have not given our unemployed graduates and hardworking people the right opportunities needed to make lives better; it is a day to renew our hope in God and join efforts towards freeing all of us from the current bondage governance by democratic means.
Light will always come after darkness; while they celebrate, let us all thank God for the gift of life even as we work and pray for genuine change.