As Nigeria Marks it’s 56th independence day anniversary, the Global Excellence Foundation, has said by defeating the Boko Haram insurgency on its own with no foreign assistance, the country has truly proved it’s independence.
In a remarks by the Foundation’s Country Director, Professor Yemi Ola On the occasion of Nigeria’s 56th Independence Anniversary, he said
In a globalised world where a few nations are in the position to call the shots to the detriment of others, Nigerians must congratulate themselves for finding home grown solutions to our security challenges.
He said, “for this reason alone, the 2016 Independence Day is worth celebrating as Nigerians can now boast as free citizens of the world to be free from the claws of terrorists who once held us to ransom.”
According to him, just as the country found home grown solution fighting and degrading Boko Haram terrorists, the economic recession should again be seen as an invitation to free ourselves from the things holding us back as a nation.
He said, “We therefore laud Mr President, who as Commander in Chief, through his recent successes in the war against terrorism, has secured Nigeria’s independence from full blown terrorism that is spreading into nations that once thought themselves insulated from”.
According to Prof Ola, that we are marking 56 years of independence is testament to the fact that Nigeria remains eternally viable as a nation, adding that although this does not rule out challenges, which are normal part of growth.
He said however said what matters is how the challenges are managed and the collective attitude to them while they last.
He said, “We cannot continue to remain at the receiving end of global trends that are creating record poverty. As a nation, we must make concerted efforts to make sure we become independent from economic colonisation
“The rise of extremism related terrorism is a global challenge. The Islamic State, ISIS problem that is spreading across the globe. The evil manifested in our country through Boko Haram, whose faction pledged allegiance to the terror franchise.
“The ambition of the terror groups is building an empire fashioned on their bloodthirsty concept, which bears a frightening semblance to the quest to dominate the world by the British Empire from which we secured independence.
“If the intention of the world’s terrorists is to build an empire as they had professed, then Nigeria is the first nation to have liberated itself from the grip of that evil. Thanks to President Muhammadu Buhari, who showed the needed leadership, we are today the one country that have been able to decimate terrorists to the point where their remnants are now being mopped up.”
He however called on the Nigerian Army to sustain the gains it has made in degrading the terrorists, saying Boko Haram terrorists in collaboration with their sponsors are capable of regrouping to wreck havoc before begging to surrender.
He said, “The successes of the military has put them out of business and the economic recession means that these sponsors will do desperate things to make the terrorists stage a daring attack.
“The Army must rise up to the task of safeguarding Nigeria from other internal occupiers, terrorists and militants that pose risk to our independence and freedom as a people. History has shown elsewhere that these set of people often work as proxies for other nation to colonise the land of their birth.
“We did not free ourselves from the lordship of a colonial master to become captives to a violent minority. Anything that constitutes risk to our corporate existence as a nation seeks to colonise us and must never be allowed.”