President of the Senate, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, has congratulated Nigerians on the 57th anniversary of the country’s independence and for sustaining her status as a united and progressive country.
Also Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, stressed the need for Nigerians to strengthen the bond of unity and cohesion as a people of common interest and destiny in the process of nation building.
Saraki in a goodwill message to mark this year’s Independence Anniversary released by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Yusuph Olaniyonu, urged Nigerians irrespective of creed and tribe to continue to work for the peace, unity and stability of the country.
He also urged leaders – political, traditional, religious and business – to close ranks in order to initiate and implement ideas and strategies that would further develop the country and increase the standard of living of the citizenry.
Saraki said that the task for a greater Nigeria, is a collective responsibility of every citizen, just as he enjoined every citizen to believe in the project Nigeria and pray for peace and progress of the country.
However, the House of Representative Speaker in his message at Independence, noted that Nigeria would only attain greatness in an atmosphere of peace, unity and stability, also enjoined the citizens to shun every harbinger of hate, division and violence.
“May I use the occasion of this year’s Independence Anniversary to urge us all to reflect on those things that unite and bring us together as a people, and shun individuals and groups with divisive tendencies.”
“At this time, more than any other, we must adopt the right strategies and utilize the advantages of our diversity to our benefit as well as blend our differences for positive outcomes in the process of building the Nigeria of our dream.”
The speaker also enjoined Nigerians to eschew ethnic, religious and sectional chauvinism and come together as one people and ” one nation bound in freedom, peace and unity” as encapsulated in the country’s National Anthem.
“True independence will continue to elude us until and unless we attain independence from tribalism, sectionalism, primodialism, religious extremism, partisan political bigotry, materialism, corruption and ancillary forms of retrogressive tendencies that threatened to consign us to the forgotten age.”
The Speaker also assured that the House of Representatives will continue to provide the needed legislative framework that would further galvanize the people and unite the nation as well as help fine solutions to the country’s socio-political challenges, urging the citizens not to moan in despair, as the country would surely come out stronger from its current challenges.
