Happy Independence Day Nigeria

For 62 years now, we have, as one people, gone through various phases of our journey to the ‘promised land’ – a Nigeria where life is soft, dreams are fulfilled, and we are all proud, a Nigeria where life is better and keeps getting better every day. We have gone from a young democracy in the early 1960s to military coups, to fighting a brutal civil war to military dictatorships to fighting back to return to democracy and a full return in 1999. 

Since 1999, we have practiced all sorts of democracy and compromise. We have gone from constitutional democracy to democracy by the doctrine of necessity. We have fought – successfully – the ambition of one man to seek a third term and replaced a cabal who held the reins of the country after the death of a President. 

We have rallied against the removal of a perceived good – fuel subsidy – which benefited the poor by a corrupt administration and come together as a nation to remove a political party which once boasted that it will be in power for the next 60 years. We have peacefully changed power from one political party to another and suffered economic recessions as a result of the maladministration and poor economic philosophy of that party and its leaders. When push came to shove for young Nigerians harassed, extorted, killed, maimed, dehumanized by the police force who should protect them, we marched on the streets and shut down the nation, asking to be listed to so that an end can be put to a rogue unit that has done more harm than good.

Yet, it doesn’t seem as though we are near to our dream destination – a nation where peace and justice reins. In fact, it appears to any observant patriot that we are so far away from this destination than any other time in the history of our nation. We are not only bedeviled by the global factors that have impacted the world in the last 5 years, we are held down by a political elite and an economic philosophy that multiplies poverty and has made no effort to innovate in the way that we create wealth for our people and can improve our standard of living. I can go on and on.

One thing however stands out and has stood out for the last 62 years – our resilience as a nation and our unshakeable belief that we can get to this dream Nigeria. The same fighting spirit that our founding fathers used to negotiate and bound together to seek independence from colonization is the same fighting spirit that a generation used to demand for a return to civil rule, some dying in the process, some having to go to exile. This same fighting spirit is what endowed even the next in calling for the right thing to be done when a President passed and a Vice President was going to be excluded and the next for demanding an end to a brutal regime. 

This fighting spirit is what I wish to celebrate today. After 62 years, it grows stronger and stronger and yes, we are better for it. Our strides may not be evident. We may be going at a slower pace than we want. We may still be facing horrors  that we know must end now – to which we may resume the fight tomorrow. I see clearly however that there is hope for this nation, as one people and the true hope for a world where Africa takes its rightful place as a continent.

Happy Independence Day Nigeria. Someday soon, you’ll be great.

Jude ‘Feranmi Adejuwon

Member, PDP

October 1 2022.