The PDP senatorial candidate, Edo Central Senatorial District, Dr. (Arc) Mike Onolememen CON, has congratulated Nigerians on occasion marking the country’s 62nd independent anniversary.
The Adolor of Uromi in his independence anniversary message to Nigerians made available to Truthlive.net said the country must unite and ensure peaceful co-existence among the diverse groups in the country.
According to the former Minister of State for Defence, “it is instructive also that we must unite as a people and make our diversity currency for development.”
He congratulated Nigerians, particularly Edo State citizens, on the anniversary of the country’s independence, which happened on this day, October 1st, 62 years ago, admonishing that without love and unity the country cannot experience genuine progress and development.
In a letter personally signed by him and delivered to us, the former two-time minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria expressed his optimism amid the challenges the country is faced with and called for harmonization and unity.
“I congratulate Nigerians, both those of us at home and in the diaspora, particularly the Edo State citizens, on the 62nd anniversary of the nation’s independence.
Onolememen noted that “This celebration, no doubt, calls for reflections across boards as we cannot say in truth we have lived up to the expectations of our founding fathers who toiled under the colonial mandate to see we were freed from the shackles of subjugation.
They went through untold hardship to see that we became a free nation, and October 1st 1960 became the day of independence after the rigours of their clamour.
“Although we cannot argue that we are not where they envisaged we should be when they masterminded this hard-fought freedom, our generation, with optimistic people, can strive to make sure that uncommon ‘labour of our heroes past shall never be in vain.’
“We are all aware of the numerous challenges we are faced with, which of course is global, but we must be stoic in the face of these challenges no matter how disconcerting they may be now.
We are a very irrepressible people, we must pursue our resourcefulness legally so as to suppress frontally the challenges. It is only through our resilience that we can conquer.
“It is instructive also that we must unite to make our diversity as a people a currency for development through the unconquerable Nigerian spirit. We can only come out victorious at the end of the day with wholesale optimism.
“I must take my time to admonish the Edo State citizens, my immediate constituency in the committee of states. Thank God that one of the major champions of the independence, Late Chief Anthony Enahoro, was from Edo State. We cannot afford to let him down even now he is no more with us.
“I am using this medium, like always, to pay him deserving tribute, and others who suffered pains to make our independence possible. Our collective ideal should be to make Edo State greater as expected. We must enhance and encourage private participation in governance through collaborative efforts and activities, and support the government through willful participation and distillation of government policies. We must all play roles in the mandate we went to the polls to give.
According to him, “I am hopeful and I wish every citizen of Edo State to be hopeful too. Let us be collaborative in our wishes and pray for a better Edo State. Let’s be deliberate in our joint ventures in ensuring that the state is tranquil, united and makes transformative progress in all facets.”
“Once again, congratulations to us @ 62.
Long live Edo State,
Long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” he added