“But I am glad that even today, on your birthday, you have not given up on Nigeria. You have not given up on mentoring those who can build a better, stronger alternative tomorrow.”
Yes, our paths met some 70 years ago in the hinterland of Ekiti, where virtues and values are celebrated. But in the last 50 years, we have developed a mutual relationship based on shared vision, dreams, ideas, thoughts and hopes.
Working on paths outlined by great minds of Obafemi Awolowo, Mahatma Ghandi, Nelson Mandela, walking with great Uncle Bola Ige and Professor Tola Atinmo and Engineer Sola Akinwunmi, we nurtured a great vision of Nigeria that will be the greatest country in Africa and indeed the Black World; a country where man, as unit of development, will be treated as equal, irrespective of religion, language and ethnic origin; a country where everyone can optimize the development and utilization his or her talents; a country where every citizen will have total freedom of speech and expression; total freedom to worship God the way they like and prefer; total freedom from wants, hunger and poverty; and freedom from remorseless fear that comes from insecurity, banditry, insurgency and terrorism.
In these 50 years, I have seen your restless but creative brain making indelible mark on the intellectual and academic landscape all over the world. I have seen your relentless and undaunted efforts in moulding a Nigeria where the optimum will be made available to the maximum number of people. I have seen how hard you have worked on the political and diplomatic scenes to create a better alternative Nigeria.
In these 50 years, I have seen your commitment and labour to add much value to our collective understanding of the concept of national security. I have seen your agony when our country, and sometimes our leadership make choices that brought to become poverty and capital of the world, with deformed economic architecture, debauched social values and security architecture that remains frozen at yesterday’s level.
We have shared the pain and agony of seeing a great country missing opportunities, misplacing priorities, embarking on wrong socioeconomic, and political paths.
But I am glad that even today, on your birthday, you have not given up on Nigeria. You have not given up on mentoring those who can build a better, stronger alternative tomorrow. You have not given up on the inevitable better days that will come.
I thank God for the abundant and sufficient grace that has allowed you to mature like wine with age. I thank God for leading you through the contradictions and inanities of Nigeria.
As I salute you on this your birthday, I challenge you and your other patriotic cerebral colleagues to pursue with greater vigour the task of building a GREAT NIGERIA of our common vision. I challenge you never to give up until all the vestiges of poverty, hunger, backwardness, lack of true gains of democracy, mental poverty that has hampered our rapid growth and development are removed.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!
YEMI FAROUNBI
