Nigeria At 65: It’s Time To Break The Vicious Circle

 By Olu Fasan

President Bola Tinubu cancelled yesterday’s Independence Anniversary parade at the last minute. No reason was given for the cancellation beyond the government’s “deep regret” for the “inconvenience caused”. Given that it was about Nigeria’s 65th anniversary as an independent state, a milestone, the cancellation was significant. Yet, in truth, it was just as well the parade was axed.

For it would be an extraordinary act of self-deception to roll out the drums for Nigeria’s 65th independence anniversary. The sad truth is that, beyond the fact of its existence as a political entity, there’s little worthy of jubilation about Nigeria at 65. If that statement sounds outlandish, then consider the following three critical measures of a nation’s success: unity, security and prosperity. Add a fourth: state capacity. How well has Nigeria fared, at 65, on these indices of development? Abysmally, one must say! 

Gettysburg Address: Abraham Lincoln Rebukes Us From The Grave

By Banji Ojewale

Wednesday November 19, 2014 marked the 151^st  anniversary of the delivery of the Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln, the President of the US at the time of the American Civil War in the 19^th Century. Lincoln delivered the speech to commemorate the gruesome Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania and to dedicate a national cemetery for slain soldiers.

*Abraham Lincoln: 16th President of 

the United States  (pix:planetfigure) 

It was a brief oration that lasted only a few minutes. The Lincoln presentation 272 words – appeared to pale next to that of a well known national orator Professor Edward Everett whose speech, running into nearly two hours, came ahead of the president’s.

The crowd gave Lincoln what an observer described as a “perfunctory applause”. It was a euphemism for unstated rejection of the speech! But the professional Everett instantly noticed the landing of a new benchmark for oratorical discipline and ingenuity. “My speech will soon be forgotten,”  he told Lincoln. “Yours will never be. How gladly would I exchange my hundred pages for your twenty lines”.