The Speaker of the Nigerian House of Representatives, Mr. Yakubu Dogara has said in a goodwill message issued in Abuja to mark Nigeria’s 57th Independence Anniversary that Nigerians need to strengthen the bond of unity and cohesion as a people of common interest and destiny in the process of nation building. He said Nigeria would come out of her current challenges.
Mr Dogara also enjoined the citizens to shun every harbinger of hate, division and violence, saying “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 people, and shun individuals and groups with divisive tendencies… At this time, more than any other, we must adopt the right strategies and utilise 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.
“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 promised that the House of Representatives would continue to provide the needed legislative framework that would further galvanise the people and unite the nation as well as help fine solutions to the country’s socio-political challenges.
