Pres. Jonathan's national broadcast on the occasion of Nigeria’s Centenary Celebrations on Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Dear Compatriots,

1. I extend warm greetings and felicitations to all Nigerians as we celebrate our nation’s centenary; a significant milestone in our journey to Nationhood.

 2. One hundred years ago, on the 1^st of January 1914, the British Colonial authorities amalgamated the Southern and Northern Protectorates, giving birth to the single geo-political entity called Nigeria which has become our home, our hope, and our heritage.
3.  I have often expressed the conviction that our amalgamation was not a mistake. While our union may have been inspired by considerations external to our people; I have no doubt that we are destined by God Almighty to live together as one big nation, united in diversity. Continue...

4. I consider myself specially privileged to lead our country into its second century of existence. And as I speak with you today, I feel the full weight of our hundred-year history. But what I feel most is not frustration, it is not disillusionment. What I feel is great pride and great hope for a country that is bound to overcome the transient pains of the moment and eventually take its rightful place among the greatest nations on earth.

5. Like every country of the world, we have had our troubles. And we still do. We have fought a civil war. We have seen civil authorities overthrown by the military. We have suffered sectarian violence. And as I speak, a part of our country is still suffering from the brutal assault of terrorists and insurgents.

6.  While the occasion of our centenary undoubtedly calls for celebration, it is also a moment to pause and reflect on our journey of the past one hundred years, to take stock of our past and consider the best way forward for our nation.

7.  Even as we celebrate our centenary, we must realise that in the context of history, our nation is still in its infancy.

8. We are a nation of the future, not of the past and while we may have travelled for a century, we are not yet at our destination of greatness.

9. The amalgamation of 1914 was only the first step in our national journey. Unification was followed by independence and democracy which have unleashed the enormous potentials of our people and laid the foundation for our nation’s greatness.

10.   In challenging times, it is easy to become pessimistic and cynical. But hope, when grounded in realism, enables and inspires progress. Therefore, as we celebrate our first century of nationhood and enter a second, we must not lose sight of all that we have achieved since 1914 in terms of nation-building, development and progress.

11.    Today, we salute once again the great heroes of our nation – Herbert Macaulay, Ernest Ikoli, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Sir Ahmadu Bello, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Alvan Ikoku, Chief Harold Dappa-Biriye, Dr. Michael Okpara, Chief Anthony Enahoro, Mallam Aminu Kano, Mokwugo Okoye and Chief Michael Imoudu among others.

12.    We must be inspired by our past to overcome the obstacles we face in the present and honour our forebears by realising the promise of a Nigeria that is not only independent but also truly unified, prosperous and admired the world over.

13.    The history of Nigeria since independence is the story of a struggle to fulfill our great promise. The discovery of oil in our country in the late 1950s offered new hope of prosperity but we have not always been able to reap the benefits in a fair and equitable way.

14.    The situation was not helped by political instability and the frequent suspension of democracy by military coups. During the civil war, the very existence of our country was cast into doubt but through it all, the promise of a Nigeria that is united, free and strong remained in our people's hearts.

15.    Thanks to the efforts of our statesmen and women, and millions of ordinary Nigerians, the union endured and flourished.  I would like to specifically commend members of the Armed Forces for their contributions and sacrifices to keep Nigeria one.

16.    General Yakubu Gowon had the wisdom and grace to declare that the civil war had seen "no victor, no vanquished" and welcomed, "the dawn of national reconciliation".

17.    It was in this spirit that General Olusegun Obasanjo collected the instruments of surrender at the end of the war and later became the first military ruler in our country to hand over power voluntarily to a democratic government.

18.    While the Second Republic did not last, his fine example was later followed by General Abdulsalam Abubakar who paved the way for our current democratic dispensation which has lasted longer than the previous three put together. 

19.    As we celebrate our centenary, I believe that it is vital that we focus our thoughts on the vast potentials of a unified and progressive Nigeria; and build on the relative stability of the Fourth Republic to achieve accelerated national socio-economic development.

20.    I also believe that the future greatness of our country is assured by the favourable tail winds of a resilient population, ecological diversity, rich natural resources and a national consciousness that rises above our differences.

21.    We are a unique country. We have been brought together in a union like no other by providence. Our nation has evolved from three regions to thirty six states and a Federal Capital Territory.

22.    We have transited from the Parliamentary to a Presidential system of government. We have moved our capital from the coastal city of Lagos to Abuja, at the centre of our country.

23.    Today Abuja stands as a monument to our national aspiration for greater unity; it symbolises our dream of a modern nation unhinged from primordial cleavages and designed as a melting pot of our diversity.

24.    If in our first century, we could build a new capital city, we can surely build a newer, stronger, more united and prosperous Nigeria in the next century that will be an authentic African success story.

25.    The whole world awaits this African success story. With our sheer size, population, history, resilience, human and natural resources and economic potentials, Nigeria is divinely ordained to lead the African Renaissance.

26.    That is why I am confident that in the next 100 years, those who will celebrate Nigeria’s second centenary, will do so as a united, prosperous and politically stable nation which is truly the pride and glory of Africa and the entire black race.

 27.    The key to the fulfilment of that vision is our continued unity as a nation. Perhaps one of the most amazing stories of our political evolution in the last hundred years is that an ordinary child of ordinary parentage from a minority group has risen to occupy the highest office in our country.
 28.    As we march into the next hundred years, it is my hope that mine will no longer be an extra-ordinary story but an accepted reality of our democracy that every Nigerian child can pursue his or her dreams no matter how tall; that every Nigerian child can aspire to any position in our country, and will not be judged by the language that he speaks or by how he worships God; not by gender nor by class; but by his abilities and the power of his dreams. 

29.    I am proud and privileged to have been elected leader of Nigeria and I consider it my solemn responsibility to act in the best interest of the nation at all times.

30.    Dear compatriots, in line with the thoughts of that great son of our continent, Nelson Mandela, let us not judge ourselves, and let not the world judge us by how many times we have stumbled, but by how strongly we have risen, every single time that we have faltered.

31.    Even as we remain resolute in our conviction that our union is non-negotiable, we must never be afraid to embrace dialogue and strengthen the basis of this most cherished union. A strong nation is not that which shies away from those difficult questions of its existence, but that which confronts such questions, and together provides answers to them in a way that guarantees fairness, justice and equity for all stakeholders.

32.    My call for the National Conference in this first year of our second century is to provide the platform to confront our challenges. I am confident that we shall rise from this conference with renewed courage and confidence to march through the next century and beyond, to overcome all obstacles on the path to the fulfilment of our globally acknowledged potential for greatness.

33.    I have referred to national leaders who did so much to build our nation in the past hundred years but nation-building is not just a matter for great leaders and elites alone.

  

34.    All Nigerians must be involved in this national endeavour. From the threads of our regional, ethnic and religious diversities we must continuously weave a vibrant collage of values that strengthen the Nigerian spirit.

35.    The coming National Conference should not be about a few, privileged persons dictating the terms of debate but an opportunity for all Nigerians to take part in a comprehensive dialogue to further strengthen our union. 

36.    I am hopeful that the conference will not result in parochial bargaining between competing regions, ethnic, religious and other interest groups but in an objective dialogue about the way forward for our nation and how to ensure a more harmonious balance among our three tiers of government. 

37.    My dear compatriots, as we celebrate our centenary, the security situation in some of our North-Eastern States, sadly remains a major concern for us. Just yesterday, young students, full of hopes and dreams for a great future, were callously murdered as they slept in their college dormitories in Yobe State. I am deeply saddened by their deaths and that of other Nigerians at the hands of terrorists. Our hearts go out to their parents and relatives, colleagues and school authorities.

38.    We will continue to do everything possible to permanently eradicate the scourge of terrorism and insurgency from our country.  We recognise that the root cause of militancy, terrorism and insurgency is not the strength of extremist ideas but corrupted values and ignorance.

39.    That is why our counter-terrorism strategy is not just about enforcing law and order as we have equipped our security forces to do. It also involves expanding economic opportunities, social inclusion, education and other measures that will help restore normalcy not just in the short term, but permanently.

40.    I want to reassure Nigerians that terrorism, strife and insecurity in any part of Nigeria are abhorrent and unacceptable to us. I urge leaders throughout Nigeria to ensure that ethnicity and religion are not allowed to become political issues.

41.    I hope and pray that one hundred years from now, Nigerians will look back on another century of achievements during which our union was strengthened, our independence was enhanced, our democracy was entrenched and our example was followed by leaders of other nations whose ambition is to emulate the success of Nigeria; a country that met its difficulties head-on and fulfilled its promise.

42.    Finally, Dear Compatriots, as we enter a second century in the life of our nation, let us rededicate ourselves to doing more to empower the youth of our country. Our common heritage and future prosperity are best protected and guaranteed by them. We must commit our full energies and resources to empowering them to achieve our collective vision of greatness in this second century of our nationhood.

43.    That is the task before our country; that is the cause I have chosen to champion and I believe we will triumph.

44.    I wish all Nigerians happy Centenary celebrations.

45.    Long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

46.       I thank you.

Gunmen raid three villages in Madagali and Michika local governments in Adamawa State

Two days after gunmen suspected to be Boko Haram members struck in early hour and killed dozens students of Federal Government College Buni Yadi, Gujba Local Government Area of Yobe State, Unknown gunmen on Wednesday night raided three villages in Madagali and Michika local governments in Adamawa State, residents and officials have said.

According to the chairman of Madagali Local Government, Maina Ularamu, who spoke with PREMIUM TIMES over the telephone, the attackers, suspected to be members of the extremist Boko Haram sect, first attacked Kirchiga Village before proceeding to Shuwa town both in Madagali Local Government Area.

“They came to Kirchiga at a little after 8p.m and opened fire sporadically at the people,” he said.

He however could not confirm any casualty‎ figure as at midnight on Thursday.

Mr. Ularamu added that the gunmen also‎ attacked neighbouring Shuwa town, adding that the sounds of gunfire could still be heard in the town as at the time we spoke to him.

Also, a resident of Michika town, who declined to be named for security reasons, told PREMIUM TIMES that he could hear gunshots in the town.

He reported intermittent sounds of gunshots and said most people in the town had run home for safety.

The spokesperson of the Nigerian Army in Yola, Nuhu Jafaru, could not be reached to comment for this story. Calls to him were unsuccessful as his telephone line failed to connect.

Yobe state Police Commissioner, Sanusi A Rufai confirmed that twenty nine male students were killed and twenty four structures that include the Administration block, students hostel and staff quarters were burnt down.

A resident in the area said he has counted 39 lifeless bodies within the premises. "The attackers started the operation around 12:15 unperturbed until after 4 am, the students were slaughtered and fired with guns.

I counted 39 copses" he said. Daily trust gathered that the

It would be recalled that assailants stormed the school premises two days ago in 6 Hilux pick up vans and motorcycles and separated only the male students before they opened fire on them. "It was too horrible because, some of the students were slaughtered, some were burnt inside the hostel”, a source said.

Many school structures were burnt down along with the occupants including the staff quarters residents in Gujba.

Nigerian undergraduate murdered in Ghana

Godwin Ayogu

The body of a Nigerian student,Godwin Ayogu,  studying in the University of Cape Coast, Ghana, on Wednesday February 19, 2014. 
Godwin was a 300 level student in Faculty of Social Sciences in that school.
He's in his early 20s. Too bad!

Governor of Osun State Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola and his deputy dressed in school uniform

Governor of Osun State, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola and his deputy, Otunba Titilayo Laoye-Tomori  addressing secondary students in Osun State

Olugbile unveils Heroes & Others in Lagos

An award winning fiction writer cum former Chief Medical Director (CMD), Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Dr. Femi Olugbile, last week Thursday, February 13, 2014, presented to the public his latest book, Heroes & Others – six short stories.

The event which attracted mostly staff of Lagos State secretariat was held at the Protea Hotel, Ikeja GRA, Lagos.

The chief host of the occasion, Governor of Lagos State, His Excellency, Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN) eulogized the author for the immense contributions he has made as a public servant and as a psychiatrist.

Fashola revealed that he graced the event because of high regard he has for Olugbile whom he described as a first class medical doctor with communication skills.

“When I appointed Dr. Olugbile as CMD LASUTH, I knew that I have picked a First Class in Medical practitioner, I did not know he was also a great literary writer. What people know is much more than what they own. I found his communication skill very appealing. He gives you a very succinct choice of words when the need arises. I later found out his early achievement that he is not only a doctor but an author. This is a combination of education and healthcare. Health provides way out of disabilities while education enlightens,” said Fashola.

Governor Fashola also disclosed that Lagos State has only one mental health which belongs to the Federal Government and revealed that with 21 million people in Lagos State, plans are underway by the Lagos State Government to build a psychiatric hospital at Ikorodu.

Fashola further said that “We must domicile mental health facility because many of us maybe in need of such services. We are in need of classification and it is important to break the taboo associated with mental ailment because it is like every other sickness such as eye problem. Mental health is not a taboo but a malfunction of the brain arising from stress, drugs and so on. I have benefitted from Dr. Olugbile and I hereby thank you.”

The chief launcher of the event, the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Emzor Pharmaceutical Industries Limited, Dr. Stella Okoli, OON who arrived the venue of the event at 9 am before other guests said it was only because of friendship that she was qualified to be the chairman of the occasion.

 “Writing is a gift and those that are blessed with this gift are special.” She described Olugbile as a friend, trusted colleague and contributor of every task he was asked to do.

We owe ourselves a duty to document our rich heritage for the unborn generation and the young ones to tell our stories. We have allowed the western world to tell our story which tilt our history. It is amazing what Olugbile has achieved in writing despite that he is not a professional writer,” said Okoli.

In the same vein, Executive Editor of TheNEWS/P.M.NEW, Mr. Kunle Ajibade, in his review of the book titled: The Truth of Femi Olugbile’s Fiction,“ traced Olugbile’s literary talent to 1971 when he was a secondary school student. “His short story won the then Radio Nigeria Christmas Competition. His proud father kept the £20 prize money (envelope and all) in a glass cupboard in the house parlour for all to see for a long time! So narrated Femi.

“I was not, therefore, surprised when, in 1986, his first collection of ten short stories, Lonely Men, now published by Longman, won the prose prize of the Association of Nigerian Authors. I remember vividly that on the award night at the University of Ife, Olugbile was very reluctant to go to the podium, apparently the author of Lonely Men just wanted to be left alone. But he eventually left the stage with grace. By the time he won that award, he was only 32 years old with a University of Edinburgh’s Master’s degree in Medicine and some trophies in his pouch.

“Since the publication of Lonely Men, Femi Olugbile has written some plays for the Nigerian Television Authorities, NTA – The Hermit, Politics of Envy, Down at the Deep and several episodes of playhouse. He has also written a novel titled Leaders! and Ten Ahead! History of Table Tennis in Nigeria, in between his numerous commitments to his professional calling. There is a sense in which his new collection of six short stories, Heroes and Others, which he is presenting on the eve of his sixtieth birthday, is a gift to himself as a young senior citizen.”

Speaking on why he titled the novel, Heroes & Others, Olugbile, who will turn 60 on February 24, said he found the title after writing the story. “Heroes & Others is a story about everybody’s life, that is finding heroism within themselves. Everybody is capable of the best we can be. In a nutshell, everybody has to tell a story about his own life, so I recommend this book to everyone to read and understand more about life,” he said.

Why can’t he just be like everyone else? -Chimamanda Adichie

I will call him Sochukwuma. A thin, smiling boy who liked to play with us girls at the university primary school in Nsukka. We were young. We knew he was different, we said, ‘he’s not like the other boys.’ But his was a benign and unquestioned difference; it was simply what it was. We did not have a name for him. We did not know the word ‘gay.’ He was Sochukwuma and he was friendly and he played oga so well that his side always won.

In secondary school, some boys in his class tried to throw Sochukwuma off a second floor balcony. They were strapping teenagers who had learned to notice, and fear, difference. They had a name for him. Homo. They mocked him because his hips swayed when he walked and his hands fluttered when he spoke. He brushed away their taunts, silently, sometimes grinning an uncomfortable grin. He must have wished that he could be what they wanted him to be. I imagine now how helplessly lonely he must have felt. The boys often asked, “Why can’t he just be like everyone else?”

Possible answers to that question include ‘because he is abnormal,’ ‘because he is a sinner, ‘because he chose the lifestyle.’ But the truest answer is ‘We don’t know.’ There is humility and humanity in accepting that there are things we simply don’t know. At the age of 8, Sochukwuma was obviously different.  It was not about sex, because it could not possibly have been – his hormones were of course not yet fully formed – but it was an awareness of himself, and other children’s awareness of him, as different. He could not have ‘chosen the lifestyle’ because he was too young to do so. And why would he – or anybody – choose to be homosexual in a world that makes life so difficult for homosexuals?

The new law that criminalizes homosexuality is popular among Nigerians. But it shows a failure of our democracy, because the mark of a true democracy is not in the rule of its majority but in the protection of its minority – otherwise mob justice would be considered democratic. The law is also unconstitutional, ambiguous, and a strange priority in a country with so many real problems. Above all else, however, it is unjust. Even if this was not a country of abysmal electricity supply where university graduates are barely literate and people die of easily-treatable causes and Boko Haram commits casual mass murders, this law would still be unjust.  We cannot be a just society unless we are able to accommodate benign difference, accept benign difference, live and let live. We may not understand homosexuality, we may find it personally abhorrent but our response cannot be to criminalize it.

A crime is a crime for a reason. A crime has victims. A crime harms society. On what basis is homosexuality a crime? Adults do no harm to society in how they love and whom they love. This is a law that will not prevent crime, but will, instead, lead to crimes of violence: there are already, in different parts of Nigeria, attacks on people ‘suspected’ of being gay. Ours is a society where men are openly affectionate with one another. Men hold hands. Men hug each other. Shall we now arrest friends who share a hotel room, or who walk side by side? How do we determine the clunky expressions in the law – ‘mutually beneficial,’ ‘directly or indirectly?’

Many Nigerians support the law because they believe the Bible condemns homosexuality. The Bible can be a basis for how we choose to live our personal lives, but it cannot be a basis for the laws we pass, not only because the holy books of different religions do not have equal significance for all Nigerians but also because the holy books are read differently by different people. The Bible, for example, also condemns fornication and adultery and divorce, but they are not crimes.

For supporters of the law, there seems to be something about homosexuality that sets it apart. A sense that it is not ‘normal.’ If we are part of a majority group, we tend to think others in minority groups are abnormal, not because they have done anything wrong, but because we have defined normal to be what we are and since they are not like us, then they are abnormal. Supporters of the law want a certain semblance of human homogeneity. But we cannot legislate into existence a world that does not exist: the truth of our human condition is that we are a diverse, multi-faceted species. The measure of our humanity lies, in part, in how we think of those different from us. We cannot – should not – have empathy only for people who are like us.

Some supporters of the law have asked – what is next, a marriage between a man and a dog?’ Or ‘have you seen animals being gay?’ (Actually, studies show that there is homosexual behavior in many species of animals.) But, quite simply, people are not dogs, and to accept the premise – that a homosexual is comparable to an animal – is inhumane. We cannot reduce the humanity of our fellow men and women because of how and who they love. Some animals eat their own kind, others desert their young. Shall we follow those examples, too?

Other supporters suggest that gay men sexually abuse little boys. But pedophilia and homosexuality are two very different things. There are men who abuse little girls, and women who abuse little boys, and we do not presume that they do it because they are heterosexuals. Child molestation is an ugly crime that is committed by both straight and gay adults (this is why it is a crime: children, by virtue of being non-adults, require protection and are unable to give sexual consent).

There has also been some nationalist posturing among supporters of the law. Homosexuality is ‘unafrican,’ they say, and we will not become like the west. The west is not exactly a homosexual haven; acts of discrimination against homosexuals are not uncommon in the US and Europe. But it is the idea of ‘unafricanness’ that is truly insidious. Sochukwuma was born of Igbo parents and had Igbo grandparents and Igbo great-grandparents. He was born a person who would romantically love other men. Many Nigerians know somebody like him. The boy who behaved like a girl. The girl who behaved like a boy. The effeminate man. The unusual woman. These were people we knew, people like us, born and raised on African soil. How then are they ‘unafrican?’

If anything, it is the passage of the law itself that is ‘unafrican.’ It goes against the values of tolerance and ‘live and let live’ that are part of many African cultures. (In 1970s Igboland, Area Scatter was a popular musician, a man who dressed like a woman, wore makeup, plaited his hair. We don’t know if he was gay – I think he was – but if he performed today, he could conceivably be sentenced to fourteen years in prison. For being who he is.) And it is informed not by a home-grown debate but by a cynically borrowed one: we turned on CNN and heard western countries debating ‘same sex marriage’ and we decided that we, too, would pass a law banning same sex marriage. Where, in Nigeria, whose constitution defines marriage as being between a man and a woman, has any homosexual asked for same-sex marriage?

This is an unjust law. It should be repealed. Throughout history, many inhumane laws have been passed, and have subsequently been repealed. Barack Obama, for example, would not be here today had his parents obeyed American laws that criminalized marriage between blacks and whites.

An acquaintance recently asked me, ‘if you support gays, how would you have been born?’ Of course, there were gay Nigerians when I was conceived. Gay people have existed as long as humans have existed. They have always been a small percentage of the human population. We don’t know why. What matters is this: Sochukwuma is a Nigerian and his existence is not a crime.

Source: The Scoop