The first of October 2014 Nigeria celebrated it's 54th Birthday and as part of the celebrations I am compiling a list of our top five achievements as a country this year.

(1) Number one achievement on the list is the Eradication of Ebola from our shores

Phew, we all had a tense couple of months of Ebola terror following the arrival of the now infamous diplomatic visitor Mr Patrick Sawyerr, but faced with severe threat to life facing all of us both great and small, the Nigerian Government set all political differences aside and joined hands to identify, quarantine and decontaminate every trace of Ebola from our country.

Sadly we lost a number of our selfless heroes who remarkably put themselves in the frontline as human shields to save us from Ebola.

To Doctor Stella Adadevoh, Nurse Justina Ejelonu and our other fallen heroes who died that we may live, we will never forget you.

Our eternal gratitude also goes to the following:

- Health Minister Onyebuchi Chukwu
- Lagos State Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola
- Dr Morris Ibeawuchi
- Dr Jide Idris
- Dr. Yewande Adesina
- Dr. Wale Ahmed
- Dr. Kayode Oguntimehin
- The Management and staff of the Lagos State Infectious Disease Hospital
- Everyone that caught the disease, got into quarantine without spreading the disease and survived to give us their first hand account. You are heroes for life.


(2) The next major achievement worth celebrating this year is the superlative performance of our women football players, the Nigerian falconets at the recently concluded U20W championships.

Our young ladies showed their mettle by knocking out some heavy weights in their quest for world domination.

A very special mention goes out to Falconet Asisat Oshoala who showed serious star power and some major footballing prowess.

(3) To top off on the sporting front our showing at the commonwealth games was a very respectable one with our haul of medals.

Particular recognition needs to go to our racing stallion Miss Blessing Okagbare who proved to be a very capable and formidable opponent in all her events. Lady blessing really blessed Nigeria with many medals.

(4) One big step in the journey towards electrification - Nigeria took a giant step towards the light by wresting power from the impotent behemoth known as NEPA / PHCN and awarding independent electricity generation and distribution companies the licence to generate and distribute power to the nooks and crannies of our country.

It is still early days but the buds have started blossoming with reports of a slight improvement in power supply from different parts of the country.

As time goes on there is likely to be a more marked increase in power generation as major players from the private energy sector like Siemens and GE are working in partnership with the government (through PPP) to make steady supply of electricity a reality for Nigeria.

We will be happy to report some more good news on this come the next Independence Day.

(5) The Nigerian Army is finally making great inroads and appear to be winning the war against terrorist and reclaiming strongholds such as Konduga from Boko Haram. We are very proud of our peeps in the Army and it is only God that can reward them for their sacrifice.

We have been rejoicing with the news that Abubakar Shekau has been killed and we hope he remains dead.

So in all we appear to have a lot to celebrate this Independence Day, so three cheers for Nigeria on her birthday and may God continue to bless and protect her and her people - Hip, hip, hip hurray.

Source: naijalondoner..co.uk