Abuja With Agency Reports — Speaker House of Repre-sentatives, Honou-rable Dimeji Bankole, yesterday took a swipe at the second and successive generations of Nigerian leaders over their collective failure to actualise the dreams of the country's founding fathers.

He said that while the country's first generation of leaders had visions of building a great nation, successive generations of leaders have failed to translate that vision into concrete plans and actions to produce the desired results.

In a goodwill message to mark Nigeria's 48th Independence anniversary, Bankole said the country had suffered backwardness due to some avoidable mistakes, stressing that the nation's journey to prosperity will have meaning only if the leadership and followership imbibed the spirit of accountability and sacrifice.

He acknowledged that though the nation's path to greatness had been full of bumps and hurdles, a lot could still be achieved before the country attained the golden age of fifty years by 2010.

"The endowments that Nigeria is blessed with in terms of natural and human resources are such that we ought to be in the league of the best nations of the world today. Regrettably, we have failed to actualise the dreams of our founding fathers because we made avoidable mistakes in the course of our journey as a nation.

"We are 48 years as an independent nation. In two years, it will be five decades since we attained independence. Within the two years that it remains for us to attain the five decades of nationhood, however, we can still emerge the prosperous country that we should be as the 'Giant of Africa' if the leadership and followership imbibe the right qualities: Accounta-bility and sacrifice," Bankole said.

Also speaking Plateau State Governor, Jonah Jang, said Nigerian leaders must use the country's wealth for its development.

Jang said this yesterday, in his message to mark Nigeria's 48th Independence Anniver-sary and encouraged Nigerians to show love for the country and invest their wealth and energy in its development, so as to empower the common man.

He also called on Nigerians to imbibe the spirit of hard work, unity and nationalism, as the country marked it 48th Independence Anniversary.

According to him, every Nigerian should use the anniversary to reflect on what he has contributed and could still do for the nation to progress.

Jang paid tributes to past leaders for their contributions to the development and progress of the country.

Also, Ebonyi State Governor, Martin Elechi, has called for the return of the war against indiscipline to help promote national rebirth.

Elechi made the call on Monday in Abakaliki, during one of the lecture series with the theme, "Attitudinal Change" to commemorate the country's 48th Independence Anniversary and the Ebonyi 12th anniversary.

He said although the programme was initiated by a past military administration, it remained the most practical step toward realisation of the age-long objective of national and state rebirth.

In his message, Cross River State, Governor Liyel Imoke, has restated his resolve to drive with more vigour and passion, implementation of his economic blue-print and seven-point agenda of development which he unveiled on May 29, 2008.

According to Imoke, his commitment of selfless service, and creation of wealth and prosperity for the people and the state is unwavering.

"As we look forward with hope and great expectations to the years to come, I urge you to not only celebrate this day, but also to pray for the unity, peace, progress and prosperity of our state and country. I write you all to give future generations a legacy they can take great pride in," he said.

Also, Abia State Governor, Theodore Orji, has reviewed Nigeria's 48 years of independence and concluded that despite several hiccups on the way, God is still very interested in Nigeria as a nation.

Orji, in a statement issued by his Chief Press Secretary, Sam Hart, urged Nigerians to look back and recall all the periods it looked as if the country was on the verge of disintegration due to political or other conflagrations, but somehow, in the nick of time, God would intervene and restore order to a nation in despair.

He noted that while other nations had very few or no natural resource to sustain their economy, Nigeria was blessed with countless mineral and natural resources that if properly harnessed, would place Nigeria on the roll call of world's great economies.