Independence Day Message to Nigeria by Jide Salu

October 1st 1960 - Independence Day

INDEPENDENCE DAY MESSAGE TO NIGERIA

FROM JIDE SALU

My Fellow Nigerians,

Today marks another year in the life of our sister, mother and to many others grandmother.

She is celebrating her 49^th birthday today and she has asked me to pass on this message.

My sister, your mother, has asked you not to celebrate today in the usual manner of congratulatory messages by conglomerates on pages of newspapers. Messages by friends of the Heads of the family (President and Governors). Purported messages congratulating her independence from the colonial masters disguised as contract applications. Supposed messages congratulating members of the family (citizens of Nigeria) but with photographs of the applicant bigger in size than the photograph of the celebrant. Enough of all that this year, mother has requested.

She has asked for this year in particular to be observed differently. She does not even mind if her 1^st son, the President and her daughter- in –law, keep their mouths shut. She would prefer if there were no broadcasts to her children and her siblings as they all fall on deaf ears.

Again, she asserts, she wants it differently this time. She has asked me to go as far as telling each local government in the state not to allocate money for Independence parades at stadia. Mother said, she once enjoyed looking at school children enjoy themselves at parades. They knew what it stood for. They knew the significance of the event. However, the meaning of Mother gaining her Independence to has now been completely lost. The school children simply could not be bothered. They see it as an opportunity to stay at home. Like many civil servants, it is another holiday.

Mother wants each of us not to celebrate her. She does not want any party. She is tired of those who take advantage of her birthday to make money. She just wants us to spend the day thinking of new ways to live the next 41 years. She wants us to think of the legacy each of us plan to leave behind.

Nigeria's first Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa to the right, with the last British Governor-General of Nigeria Sir James Robertson. Picture courtesy of http://maxsiollun.wordpress.com

In her speech to Mother on attaining her freedom exactly 49 years ago on this day, the Queen of England, through Her Royal Highness, Princess Alexandria of Kent made an observation. Read what she had to say;

“When I sent a message to you on the occasion of the celebrations of your attainment of  Regional Self-Government, I spoke of the heavy task that lay before you and of my confidence in the ability of my people in the  other Nigeria to surmount any difficulties which self-government might bring. You have now had over one year of experience in managing your own affairs and it is a matter of profound satisfaction for me that my people in Northern Nigeria have well acquitted themselves in this period of trial. You have proved yourselves able to progress and accept the challenge of the modern world and yet preserve these priceless values of orderly conduct and respect for authority. You can justly feel proud of this achievement, and I am confident that you will be a pillar of strength in the future development of independent Nigeria, and that you will play your part in preserving the essential integrity of the Federation.”

Mother was given the supreme responsibility of self-Government. She was also forewarned of the heavy task that lay before her, but the Queen who was giving her the freedom had some form of confidence in her ability. Could even the Queen has over estimated Mother’s ability of self-government?

Mother, who had a test run with her chosen few, before freedom of rule was finally granted must have thought it was child’s play. How so wrong?

On her 49^th year as a mother, she is concerned with her aliases. She is concerned with what she is noted for.

She knows that at the mention of 419, Corruption, Religious beliefs, it is a blunt reference to her. She is aware that members of her family have a crazy passion for football, but misplaced tpriorities in getting teams adequately organised and prepared. Oil has become synonymous to all that has bred adversity to the family. The greed and lust for money is what Mother is so confused about. She just does not understand why a majority of members of her family have come to simply love the act of making money by all means. Money has become an idol to the majority, yet we profess to be believers in God the creator of heaven and earth. This worries Mother a great deal.

The reference “Giant of Africa” is now made more in jest than in admiration.

Mother is however proud of those that have strived in the past and are still striving to promote everything good about the family’s name to the international body. People like Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Nuhu Ribadu and Nwankwo Kanu. There was Gani (Fawehinmi) who did everything he could before he passed on. There was also Ken Saro-Wiwa, Sir Tafawa Balewa, Nnamdi Azikwe and Obafemi Awolowo. Mother still remembers these children of hers with great affection.

Mother believes that she can no longer be a potential. For how long would she remain as one? She says I should pass on to those who care to read, digest and act, that each and every one of us would pass on one day, and how would we want to be remembered?

Of her 16 cousins (Benin – August 1^st, Burkina Faso – August 5^th, Cameroon – January 1^st, C.A.R – August 13^th, Chad – August 11^th, Congo- August 15^th, Congo DR- June 30^th, Cote d’Ivoire- August 7^th, Gabon – August 17^th, Madagascar- June26th, Mali – September 22^nd, Mauritania – November 28th, Niger – August 3^rd, Senegal – April 4^th , Togo- April 27^th and Somalia – July 1^st ) who were also given the keys of freedom the same year as us – 1960, she is aware that a lot hasn’t happened in their lives as well, just like her. However senior she is to her cousins, not necessary in the month of attaining the key, but by virtue of its population and resources, she believes a lot of responsibilities is shelved on her shoulders and she wants us all to take the lead.

Mother is very much aware of the technological developments that took place during the era she got her freedom.

• The compact Ford Mustang, launched in 1964, was one of the decade’s greatest successes.
• 1960 – The female birth control contraceptive, the pill, was released after FDA approval.
• 1960 – The first working laser was demonstrated in May by Theodore Maiman at Hughes Research Laboratories.
• 1961 – First human spaceflight to orbit the Earth: Yuri Gagarin, Vostok 1.
• 1962 – First trans-Atlantic satellite broadcast via the Telstar satellite.
• 1962 – The first computer video game, Spacewar!, is invented.
• 1963 – The first geosynchronous communications satellite, Syncom 2 is launched.
• 1963 – Touch-Tone telephones introduced.
• 1964 – The first successful Minicomputer, Digital Equipment Corporation‘s 12-bit PDP-8, is marketed.
• 1964 – The programming language BASIC was created.
• 1965 – Sony markets the CV-2000, the first home video tape recorder.
• 1966 – Construction on the World Trade Center begins.
• 1966 – The Soviet Union launches Luna 10, which later becomes the first space probe to enter orbit around the Moon.
• 1967 – First heart transplantation operation.
• 1967 – PAL and SECAM broadcast color TV systems start publicly transmitting in Europe.
• 1967 – The first ATM is opened in Barclays Bank, London.
• 1968 – First humans to leave Earth’s gravity influence and orbit another celestial body: Apollo 8.
• 1968 – The first public demonstration of the computer mouse, the paper paradigm Graphical user interface, video conferencing, teleconferencing, email, and hypertext.
• 1969 – Arpanet, the research-oriented prototype of the Internet, was introduced.
• 1969 – First humans to walk on the Moon: Apollo 11.
• 1969 – CCD invented at AT&T Bell Labs, used as the electronic imager in still and video cameras.
• The Bosonic string theory, the original version of string theory, is developed in the late 1960s.
  

She however wonders what can be said about her achievements so far? We have become a family – a nation of mighty FAITH without ACTION she said.

She wants each and every one of us to reflect on our individual contributions to the family’s coffers. In what way are we contributing to the wealth of the family? In what ways are we also taking out? Do we have to wait for the head of the family before we act positively? The decision is yours wherever you may be in the world. Where you reside, you still belong to the family. There is no disguising the special family features you are endowed with.

Mother has asked me to express her concerns and sentiments that a family with individual agenda to squander will have itself to blame because no matter how much you squander, you can only lie on one side of your body at the same time. Which I echo!!

How much wealth do you really think can satisfy your ego?

Insatiable, I say!!

Finally, mother says that, henceforth, we should always ask ourselves this question, before we act; who are you adding to? Who are you taking away from?

She concluded by saying that the best form of investment every family member of Nigeria could ever have is in another member of the family, directly or indirectly. That, she said will be your lasting LEGACY, not the cars, the houses, the degrees and the money

She wishes each and every one of you well. She hopes she would have better things to say on her 50^th birthday – Nigeria’s year of destiny.

USEFUL HISTORICAL LINKS – Read between the lines of these speeches. It reveals a lot. Enjoy.

• Independence Speech by
• (1949) Nnamdi Azikiwe Speaks at a Rally for Nigerian Independence at Trafalgar Square, London
• Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Independence Speech in 1960

Tagged: 49 Independence Anniversary, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, Her Royal Highness, Independence Day message to Nigeria from Jide Salu, Jide Salu, Nigeria's year of destiny, Nigerian Independence Day celebration, Obafemi Awolowo, Princess Alexandria of Kent, Significance of Nigeria Independence, Tafawa Balewa

Posted in: Inspirational, Personal Thoughts