Daily Trust (Abuja)
4 October 2008
Nigeria's 48th independence anniversary was devoid of fanfare. President Yar'adua's speech marking the day was short both in its content and in its promises of what good things lay ahead, a usual feature of Independence Day speeches.
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I am very impressed with your unbiaised degree of assessment of the problems facing our nation. We are a nation of peoples that have great difficulty honoring our own. Yet, we spend a great deal of time and money traveling to places around the globe to visit historical sites like London's Trafalgar Square, or the Stonehenge, or the Washington Monument. We seldom develop our own to show the world that we have a history worthy of mention. Chief Anthony Enahoro was one of the voices of reason during the Nigeria/Biafra debacle. So was the late Chief Obafami Awolowo who, in his early days of the Action Group stood firm for individual rights, and State rights. Unfortunately, the emergence of military dictatorships stripped Nigerians the rights to proper use of their resources without having to seek consent from Abuja. I have the greatest respect and admiration for President Yar' Adua in his efforts to re-institute the rule of law in the federation which was run amok by soldiers with unrestrained impunity. I do think that, without politicizing the process, we should continue with the process of dialogue, as suggested by Chief Enahoro.