Speeches

50th Independence Anniversary Of Nigeria

Oct 1, 2010 - It is my pleasure to address you today on this occasion of our country's 50th Anniversary Independence Anniversary. It is perhaps a season of mixed blessings, depending on which side of the debate we find ourselves. But I see our glass as half full rather than half empty.

I have listened and followed across our country the debate about how well we have done and how better we could have done and I say to you all that as useful as those reflections may be, the adverse comments or judgments may amount at the worst, to no more than lamentations of missed opportunities and at best, to useful lessons of what we must never do again as we head into the future.

I choose to take the latter view for many reasons.

The first is that I am a Nigerian and remain always proud to be one.

I have become the leader of this State by the most improbable of circumstances which can only be divine and therefore I believe that Nigeria will certainly reach the most unthinkable heights if we persevere.

Secondly, I believe that success or failure is defined simply by how we react to opportunities and not by how we lament about lost opportunities.

It is my firm belief that there are more opportunities ahead of us than those that we have left behind us and it is now our responsibility as a people, the leaders and the led, to begin to seek out those opportunities and to work hard to make them count.

Thirdly, our past will be useful if it helps us to reflect on the sacrifice of our founding heroes and fathers, Herbert Macaulay, Ernest Ikoli, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Dr. Nnamdi Azikwe, Obafemi, Anthony Enahoro and many more that time and space cannot allow me mention but who truly live in our hearts and whose labour we must ensure is not in vain.

Fourthly, our past must remind us that this soil, the beautiful City-State and Islands of Lagos were the battle grounds for the liberty pursuits of our heroes and that this very ground, the Race Course, was the site where the British flag, the Union Jack, flew for the last time as the symbol of imperial authority over Nigerian territory before it was lowered for the final time as a sign of victory and freedom, valiantly fought and won by our patriotic heroes.

It is fitting and proper that the grounds have appropriately been dedicated in honour of one of the heroes, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa as a tribute and symbol of our freedom and one of the things that we must never do is to desecrate these grounds in the pursuit of any commercial or personal venture.

This is a national monument belonging to this State and we hold it as a symbol of pride for free people of this country and as a memorial of where we came from and how we got here.

Although we have become free of imperialists, we have not freed ourselves from under development and its challenges; there are many battles yet ahead to be fought and won. The battle for security, economic prosperity and the security of our people's future lies ahead and remains to be won.

It requires all of us, to live in peace, in religious harmony and unity, dictated by tolerance and mutual respect to achieve this.

It is only on the foundation of peace and harmony that we can build political stability starting from free and fair election, as the precursor to our quest for a brighter and rewarding future.

Dear children, distinguished Lagosians, we are the inheritors of a proud legacy, in pursuit of prosperous future, as Governor of Lagos, I dedicate myself to continue to lead this cause for as long as you believe in it. I am certain that we can do it.

Against all the pessimisms that we will never be free, we made it. We survived a bitter civil war and resolved that we will rebuild without victor or vanquish.

We have proved every pessimist wrong by successfully transiting, first from military to civilian governance, and later from civilian to civilian governance, and inspite of the odds, it is now 11 (eleven) years since 1999, as we learn how to govern ourselves.

I know the expectations are high, but if we pause to think how many times we have got up when we stumbled, how many times we have confounded those who wrote us off, we will see something in it – an innate ability that lies in us to make things work if we decide to do so.

In Lagos, that decision has been made. As I said in my speech at the 3rd Anniversary of our administration, we have exploded many myths and actualized seeming impossibilities.

Lagos is now safer than before, inspite of epileptic public power supply, our streets are being lit up at night by a committed people and Government, to create jobs through a 24 hour economy.

The former "concrete jungle" as some cynics described us has become a land of green parks and gardens.

From what used to be one of the dirtiest cities, we have become the cleanest and we are overcoming the challenge of flooding that many predicted would have submerged Victoria Island and Ikoyi. The famour "River Luth" in Idi Araba is now history.

Against all odds, Oshodi is now safe for pedestrians and motorable for commuters, and Oluwole area has yielded her unpleasant notoriety to a new urban shopping complex in support of commerce and economic prosperity that creates jobs.

It is therefore my very clear view that nothing is impossible.

It is my view that what is possible in Lagos is possible in all parts of Nigeria and what we must simply do, is make the choice and find the will to make it work.

An age group that must be of great concern to all of us, are the 20-35 year old citizens. According to the last National Census figures, this age group constitute almost 70% of our country's population of about 140 million people.

Unfortunately, the largest numbers of unemployed and disenfranchised Nigerians are also found in this group, and Lagos as the most populous State in the country will understandably have its fair share of this group living in our State and looking for their life's opportunity in our State of great promise.

In the last 12 months, our Government in conjunction with private sector practitioners have worked very hard to put together a project which was recently approved by the State Executive Council.

The Lagos Ignite Enterprise and Employability project is focused on addressing the job creation and employability challenges of this age group which ordinarily should be the power house of our economy and to avoid the mistakes of the past, we are introducing entrepreneurship into the Lagos State School programme from the secondary school level into tertiary.

A pilot of this programme will involve 30 schools from all divisions of the State. The project will be very practical and result oriented as I look forward to us building the economy of our great state together.

It will require patience from and with our leaders; it will demand restraint from those who are being led. We must exercise our rights, but with the knowledge and understanding that they have corresponding duties.

We must evolve that Nigerian way of endless and positive possibilities from today.

So many years lie ahead of us to make the future we want starting from today. If we set forth at dawn, we can make this journey before dusk.

Truly, I believe that inspite of the clamour about the "good old days", Nigeria's best days still lie ahead.

Long live Lagos State, Long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Happy 50th Anniversary and God bless us all.

Eko o ni baje o!

Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN
Governor of Lagos State