By Mike Adeyemi
Residents of Ilorin, Kwara State Capital have identified injustice, corruption, selfishness, and bad leadership as parts of the challenges facing the country as a developing nation.
They stated this while appraising the score cards of Nigeria on the occasion of her 61st anniversary.
Speaking to our reporter, they observed that for Nigeria to grow and experience true development in all sectors, the political class must address the issue of corruption and bad leadership amongst others.
Having mixed feelings about celebrating this year independence anniversary of the nation, some think that the country has made remarkable progress in the area of infrastructural development while others think the nation is still far from the promised land.
They opined that at 61, the nation is still battling with transparency and issue of unity of purpose, hence the recent call by prominent Nigeria’s for a national dialogue.
For the country to be better than what it is, residents of Ilorin, Kwara State want government at all levels to focus on activities and policies that would guarantee the true sense of the word Independence.
Reacting, an Octogenarian, Chief Sam Awoniyi declared that all is not doom for the country despite her mirage of challenges.
“Nigeria is on the right path, though we have our differences, they count far less than values, virtues and common aspirations as that unite us as a nation. We have so much to be grateful for and in which we should rightly take pride,” he said.
For Alhaji Jimoh Kasali, a retiree, he said what Nigeria needs at 61 is a collective efforts toward equating her with her peers in the world.
“What we all need as Nigerians is to stand tall in unionism to make our voice, and to show our displeasure.”
Prince Ayo Bamidele lamented that celebrating Nigerian at 61 is a bad omen as there is nothing worthy of celebrating in the country.
“Doctors running out of Nigeria, corruption increasing, fuel and electricity hike, insecurity and poverty, schools still shut down but political campaign going on.
“Exchange rate high, bad governance, standard of living high, kidnapping, harassment, tribalism, to name but a few. It is quite unfortunate, ” Bamidele laments.
In the same vein, Malik Abdulsalam, a motor dealer, said there is nothing to celebrate in Nigeria, charging citizens to retract their steps.
“In fact there’s nothing good about this country. We are just hoping it will be better because we have nothing to show forth it.
“I think both the leadership and followership need to retract their steps. We have deviated from what the founding fathers laid down. It is unfortunate,” he lamented.
