Being the text of a Speech Delivered by the Ekiti State Representative in the Nigeria Rebirth National Development TV Programme, during the 57th Anniversary of Nigeria's Independence day.
October 1, 2017.

PROTOCOLS.
Today marks the 57th Anniversary of Nigeria's gain of independence from the British Colonial Master's rule, on the first day of October, 1960.

Her founding Fathers collectively had a dream of a country with all her ethnic nationalities peacefully coexisting together as a beautiful rainbow nation. That is, a multicultural group of people with a common destiny and with a cohersive national identity.

Those Nationalists also had a dream of a Nigeria with all her tribes having a sense of national consciousness by understanding their tribal differences, having tolerance of one another, having respect for other groups' value systems through the exposure to their tradition, culture, perculiarity and way of life.

All these structures were put in place for the Nigerian citizens to fully maximize the strength in their diversity for the pursuit of the nation's prosperity.

Let us at this point ponder over the sequence of our journey from the first Republic's Westminster Parliamentary System of Democratic Government, through the various "ups and downs", till this 4th Republic of Presidential System of Democratic Government.

I am referring to the days of groundnut pyramids in the ancient city of Kano.
Let us flash back to the days when cocoa served as the major agro-export commodity in the South-Western Nigeria.
The good times when palm oil, rubber and other allied agro-products served as the viable source of generating income to the nation's purse in the Southern and Eastern Nigeria.
Let us have a deep reflection of the good days, in the early 70s, when Nigeria gave foreign aids to South Korea, that have now risen up, overtook all within few decades, and presently one of the top ten most developed nations of the world.

At this point, we need to have a reflection of the past. We must evaluate where we are, that is, the present. We need to also aspire a better destination - the greener pasture, that is, the future.

Without much ado, my fellow Patriots, it is time for us to rise up to the task of defining and also interpreting the true meaning of the Nigerian creed as laid down by her founding Fathers.

The time is now!
We are better together!
Regardless of our ethnical background,
regardless of our beliefs,
irrespective of our political ideology:
Let us join hands together to build this great nation for the present and coming generation.

We need to always have in mind, one of our national identity: "Unity, Peace and Progress" as the Nigerian Motto.

Emphatically, for us to have a progressive, self-reliant and a sustainable economic development agenda for our dear nation, the diverse ethnic nationalities must be ready to set aside the fulfillment of their personal, political or ethnical interests for the sake of actualizing the Government's sustainable socio-economic development agenda that participatory counts on the youths' involvement in the nation building process.

Without any iota of doubt, the future of the Nigerian economy solely depends on how entrepreneurial and self-reliant the Nigerian youths are.

Poverty shall be a thing of the past in our land, unemployment shall be forgotten in due time.
All these shall be actualized if only we can rise up to the task of looking inwards to invent handy solutions to our recurring challenges rather than playing the usual "blame game" on colonisation as the impedance of the sequence of our evolutionary development in Nigeria, or putting too much reliance on other countries for sustenance. For how long shall we continue like this?

Putting all these necessary things in place, i strongly believe that Nigeria will become a fully-industrialised nation that exports more than she imports for the daily activities of her people, yielding them a high standard of living.

Not only that, Nigeria can have all her citizens duly accorded with inalienable social, political and economic benefits, regardless of their place of birth, but according to the fulfillment of the constitutional provisions. This goal can be actualized by the reformation of our Alien Policy in Nigeria.

Nigeria, a nation at a cross-road, from the present dept of wailing challenges, here is a flash of a ray of hope of a brighter future.

Together, we can take Nigeria to our collectively aspired destination. But as you may know, our will-power and decisive strength are both pivotal in taking us to the greener pasture and not only a mere desire.

So, the time to take a step is now!
In my oft-repeated maxim of national development: both the Government and the people both have crucial roles to play in the nation building process.

Most importantly, to the past and the present Nigerian Governments, i need to start by applauding all your relentless efforts towards national integration, most especially, the instrumentalisation of several programmes and policies channeled towards creating a sense of national consciousness among the diverse ethnic nationalities in Nigeria.
However, i will like to highlight seven key issues that need an urgent attention in the Nigeria of today;

1. The family: as we all know, the family is the smallest unit of the society, a platform to build the societal morals and values, while also serving as an avenue to parentally raise and build the future leaders. Without any iota of doubt, if the family fails, the national future might be at a brim of collapse.

The alarming rate of moral decadence and the rapid decline in the standard of an average Nigerian family should be speedily addressed with maximum attention.
There is a need to restore the lost moral values in our various communities, mostly among the youths and the teenagers. This is what i term as the foundation of the nation building process. The Non-Governmental organisations, the National Orientation Agency, the parents, and other Civil Society Organisations must take up the responsibilities of disseminating moral training to the Nigerian Child, while also making him aware of the Nigerian dream.

Practically, the Nigerian Child, whom i term the leader of tomorrow needs to have a deep knowledge of his constitutional rights as a citizen, right from the childhood phase of growth. The child needs to know what is expected from him as a citizen, while also being consciously aware of his expectations from the Government.

2. Nigeria needs a well-defined underlying philosophy and a re-invented national ideology in all she undertakes. Our socio-economic policies should be well-planned without any iota of myopicity, being duly experimented and properly implemented.

In line with my personal development strategy for Nigeria, each Nigerian State should have a well-planned socio-economic development policy with respect to their respective peculiarity, while also re-inventing a feasible "approach" to implement a long-term development policy under a democratic setting.

3. It is high time for Nigerians to inculcate the habit of having respect and valuable recognition for intellectual ability of the Research-oriented Educationists in Nigeria. This change of attitude will foster the phenomenon of Technology Transfer, which is the pathway to the actualisation of the dream of having a fully industrialized nation.

4. A diversified, a stable and a sustainable economic development agenda should be actively pursued by the Federal Government as being clearly stated as her constitutionalized fundamental responsibility to her citizenry.
In reference to an epic publication by Bruno Marshall Shirley, titled: The Asian Tiger from Independence to Industrialisation: "The examples of the Asian Tigers show us an alternative path to economic development: a strong central government guiding the economy forward through several distinct stages of development until it reaches full industrialisation".

5. The consumable energy and power sector should be given an urgent developmental attention. The Nigerian Researchers who are committed to the invention of an Eco-friendly energy and power generation such as bio-fuels, should be given access to an effective capital mobilisation facilities, through the means of Advanced Manufacturing Partnership Programmes or by the means of the CBN's capital mobilisation schemes.

These researchers should not only be tasked, but productively engaged and well-equipped with what it takes to invent an alternative source of consumable energy, very affordable for the common man, while also having the edge to reduce the consumptional pressure on the hydro-electric power supply in Nigeria.

6. Maximum focus should be given to the revitalisation and the development of the Nigerian Education Sector: knowing fully well that a properly educated workforce, a politically stable society, a self-reliant economy and citizens with high human development index are all the products of a sound education system.

7. The last but not the least, the Government must give maximum attention to pragmatically invent a feasible national integration strategy, either by the means of preferably adopting economic access (horizontal) or the current political access (vertical) in uniting the diverse ethnic nationalities in Nigeria. This gesture will facilitate an even access to economic opportunities by the citizens, while also fostering equal access to education, eradicate the cry of marginalisation, quench the moves for regionalism, and also annulling the feelings of hegemony among the Nigerian citizens.

To crown it all, critical attention must be given to the issues of leadership development in Nigeria, most especially the issues of management and rationalisation of the nation's resources, while also instrumentalising strategies on how to evenly distribute the wealth generated from the exploitation of the resources in question among the citizens.
In one of my oft-repeated maxim of national development: "Some countries in other continents of the world have natural disasters as the major impedance to their national development, but in most African Nations, we have leadership disaster as the impedance to our all-round development, yielding Africa the name, third world Nations".
However, it goes with saying, that, history can also be kind to us if we can write it with our hands.
Arise Africa: It is time to change this international perception by pragmatically re-writing the narratives with our hands. This goal can be collectively achieved by looking inwards to devise solutions to the recurring challenges that have kept us in the wailing dungeon of under-development for so long.

In conclusion, i implore the Nigerian private sectors and other Foreign Direct Investors to collaborate with the public sectors in maximizing the economic development potentials of our God's given arable lands, mineral and natural resources and human resource capacity for the purpose of implementing projects where resources, strength and capabilities of each player can be leveraged on, to deliver on corporate social responsibility commitments.

As earlier noted, both the government and the people both have key roles to play in taking Nigeria to the aspired greener pasture.

To the Nigerian citizens, the state-builders, we must be ready to set aside our personal economic interests for the sake of the fulfillment of the national economic interest. Be law abiding, say no to tax avoidance or evading it, patronize the Nigerian-made products while critically giving feedback to the manufacturers in order to give room for improvement and perfection. With this attitude, we can be boastful of a competitive export product in Nigeria within the shortest period of time.
Remember, a little drop of water makes an ocean.

The people, whom i term the nation-builders must also clearly understand that their votes is not only their franchise right, but also their power to install tranformationists and visionary leaders in the position of governance, which is the pathway to our all-round development in Nigeria.

The people should see all these afore-listed attitudes as their timely contributions to the nation building process, most especially, in fostering the actualization of the long-awaited industrial revolution in Nigeria.

To the Nigerian youths in specific, let us all act as the words of the 35th American President - John F. Kennedy, during his presidential inauguration speech, he said: "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country".

It is my profound pleasure to close with this remark: "congratulations to the knowledgeable people of Ekiti State on the 21st Anniversary of the creation of the State. Let your "Fountain of Knowledge" spring out to the entire world. I also want to congratulate my Fellow Nigerians for the 57th Anniversary of Nigeria's Independence day".

In my oft-repeated maxim of conclusion, God on our side and with the high level of our selfless commitments, Nigeria shall actualise all her developmental goals in due season.

God bless the Super37,
God bless Ekiti State,
God bless Nigeria.

Thank you.

Written & Delivered by Jawolusi Oluwaseun Solomon.