There are no reasons to celebrate – Tinubu

Former Lagos state governor Asiwaju Bola Tinubu believes that there are no obvious reasons why Nigeria should celebrate its 54th Independence in an elaborate fashion.

In a statement released on Monday, the Jagaban of Borgu said that Nigeria is yet to attain its potentials despite all its staggering natural resources. He lamented the suffering of Nigerians which he believes was caused by poor leadership.

He said: “We commemorate this Independence Day because the nation has survived despite its many challenges. We dare not celebrate because the nation has not flourished as it should. 54 years our national trek began with hope and promise, peace and unity.

“Today, the nation staggers beneath the weight of trouble stacked upon problem 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. We have lost our road and now seem to be on the road of the lost. I am proud to be a Nigerian and would not attach my life to any other nation but genuine patriotism should not induce blindness. We are burdened by too many resolvable challenges that remain unresolved,” he said.

He noted that: “This is not a time for fake cheers and elation at the present state of things just because the calendar has touch this day. We need to use this hour soberly by taking stock of the obstacles mounting before us and of the hard direction in which we seem to be heading. I fear this direction, if further taken, will lead us not home but to an appointment with failure and national destitution. 

At their inception, every nation is a dynamic interplay of assets and liabilities, promises and threats, capabilities and contradictions. As time passes, the nation is supposed to move forward in mature progress so its assets, promise and capabilities increasingly outweigh their negative counterparts.

“In recent years, Nigeria has become victim to an opposite dynamic.

 Nigeria currently is saddled with the reprobate leadership Awo, Zik, Sardauna and Tafawa Belewa feared. We have entered unchartered territory not so much because we are expanding the outer bounds of national progress. We traverse such ground because this government leads us into places where angles fear to tread and where sensible man should not go.

“Never has an elected government in Nigeria employed religion as a tool to divide the people, setting Nigerian brother against brother in a manner that allows this administration to function at the basest level of governance while seeking to establish a political domination that seeks no greater purpose than its self perpetuation. Our nation was supposed to advance, year by year, toward greater democracy. Instead, we rush into the pit of arbitrary, imperious rule that smacks of despotism.