The report that it’s a mixed feeling today, the 61st anniversary of Nigeria’s attainment of independence amid natural wealth and peace as the reality for citizens is the exact opposite, gloom and a state of fear is the trending story in Nigerian newspapers on Friday.
The Guardian reports that it’s a mixed feeling today, the 61st anniversary of Nigeria’s attainment of independence. Amid the celebration of nationhood in the national colours of green and white, symbolising natural wealth and peace, the reality for citizens is the exact opposite, gloom and a state of fear.
Acknowledging this reality, President Muhammadu Buhari in his Independence Day broadcast, today, said “the past 18 months have been some of the most difficult periods in the history of Nigeria. Since the civil war, I doubt whether we have seen a period of more heightened challenges than what we have witnessed in this period.
“Our original priorities for 2020 were to continue stabilising our economy following the deep recession while restoring peace in areas confronted with security challenges, but the COVID-19 pandemic and its devastating impact on all nations meant we needed to shift gears and re-strategise.
“Despite the global inequity in access to vaccines, the government has continued to explore all available options to ensure Nigerians have free access to safe and effective vaccines.
“But as our economy continues to open after the COVID-19-related lockdowns, we have also seen the resurgence of insecurity in certain parts of the country.”
Reeling out steps taken to address the problem, President Buhari said the government was ready to arrest and prosecute all persons inciting violence through words or action.
“Our resolve for a peaceful, united and one Nigeria remains resolute and unwavering. I use this day to ask all Nigerians to embrace peace and dialogue, whatever their grievances.
“The seeds of violence are planted in people’s heads through words. Reckless utterances of a few have led to losses of many innocent lives and the destruction of properties.”
The Punch says that protesters in the early hours of Friday stormed the Dantata Bridge on the popular Airport Road in Abuja, demanding the resignation of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari.
The protest coincided with the nation’s 61st Independence Anniversary.
The protesters, wielding large banners, made bonfires on the highway.
As of the time of filing this report, however, heavily armed policemen have disperse the protesters.
The protesters had just converged at the venue to begin their demonstration when men of the Nigerian Police stormed the area.
They fired tear gas canisters and gave them a hot chase.
The newspaper reports that Nigeria spent N445.4bn on debt servicing payments in the second quarter of this year, the latest data obtained from the Debt Management Office have shown.
From April to June 2021, Nigeria spent N322.7bn on domestic debt servicing, while $299m (N122.7bn) was spent on external debt servicing.
The exchange rate of the Central Bank of Nigeria ($1 is N410.3) as of September 30 was used for the external debt servicing.
For domestic debt, Nigeria spent N258bn in April, N42.4bn in May, and N22.3bn in June.
A breakdown of the statistics shows that the Federal Government spent a total of N322.7bn on the payment of interest, with N50.3bn expended on the redemption of matured Nigeria Treasury Bills between April and June 2021.
For external debt servicing, commercial loans had 53 per cent with a cost of $157,012.17, multilaterals had 35 per cent with a cost of $103,732.70, and bilateral had 13 per cent with a cost of $38,220.88.
Earlier, DMO’s Director General, Patience Oniha, had disclosed that the Nigeria’s total public debt stock rose from N33.11tn as of March 31, 2021 to N35.47tn as of June 30, 2021.
This shows an increase of N2.36tn or 7.13 per cent increase within the three-month period.
Vanguard reports Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, has said frustration and hopelessness now pervades the nation as the country marks 61 years of Independence on October 1.
In a statement to mark Nigeria’s Independence Anniversary, titled: “Nigeria at 61: Let us resume our march to greatness”, President of NLC, Ayuba Wabba, lamented that the symptoms of the break in Nigeria’s “progress march stare us hard in the face. Our deterioration has come so fast and furious that we have inadvertently surrendered our will and space for development to very unreasonable, violent and destructive non-state actors who have not only become a law to themselves but are trying to impose their regime of lawlessness on all of us.”Among others, the statement said “There is no gainsaying the contribution of Nigeria’s working class to national development, peace and unity. On this commemoration of another independence anniversary, we recall and honour the selfless efforts of heroes and heroines past and present – Nigerian workers, our pensioners including ex-servicemen and women, members of the armed services, our women, our youths, and Nigerian children.
“Upon the attainment of independence sixty-one years ago, a lot was expected of the country that hosts the largest population of black people on the planet. It was on the strength of that hope that Nigeria shortly after Independence became the pilgrimage destination for many development minded world leaders including the famed Lee Kuan Yew of the Singapore phenomenal transformation.
“Sixty-one years ago, Nigeria was certainly on a march to greatness. In every part of the country, there was a manifest gush of hope, faith, energy and commitment in the stride of most Nigerians as our compatriots strove to prove a point that independence was not a fluke – that indeed we could do better than the white colonial administrators.
“Indeed, we sure made such a huge progress in those initial years of our national life. Those were the days of the famed groundnut pyramid in Kano, palm oil plantations in the Eastern region, the rubber estates in the Mid-West and the cocoa fields in Southwestern Nigeria. Life was indeed safe, secured and abundant!
“Then, politics happened. Instead of building on the zeal and energy of Nigerian workers and people to redeem the image of the black race which was badly mauled by slave trade and colonization, our political leaders shifted their eyes from the dreams of a great country and became fixated with the delusion of personal conquests through primitive accumulation of wealth aided by a deliberate divide and rule politics. Till today, after many successive governments, our country is yet to recover from the tsunami of ethno-religious politics, values disorientation, and the weakening of unifying institutions.
“The symptoms of the break in our progress march stare us hard in the face. Our deterioration has come so fast and furious that we have inadvertently surrendered our will and space for development to very unreasonable, violent and destructive non-state actors who have not only become a law to themselves but are trying to impose their regime of lawlessness on all of us.
“It is time to own up to the truth of our self-inflicted pains and examine closely where we lost it as a nation. It is not too late to resume our paused march to greatness. We can still become that country that accords the pride of place to truth, productivity, hard work, excellence, integrity, patriotism, service and sacrifice.
The Sun says that President Muhammadu Buhari has approved a conditional lifting of ban on the microblogging giant, Twitter.
The president made this position known during a broadcast to mark Nigeria’s 61st Independence Anniversary on Friday in Abuja.
The Buhari Government suspended the operations of Twitter in Nigeria on June 5, to allow the government put measures in place to address identified negative trends exhibited by the social media platform.
“Following the suspension of Twitter operations, Twitter Inc. reached out to the Federal Government of Nigeria to resolve the impasse. Subsequently, I constituted a Presidential Committee to engage Twitter to explore the possibility of resolving the issue.
“The Committee, along with its Technical Team, has engaged with Twitter and have addressed a number of key issues. These are: National Security and Cohesion; Registration, Physical presence and Representation; Fair Taxation; Dispute Resolution; and Local Content.
GIK/APA