- Safiu Kehinde
The 2027 African Action Congress Presidential candidate, Omoyele Sowore, has decried the perceived injustice and economic hardship faced by Nigerians as the country marks 66th Independence Day anniversary.
Sowore, in a statement issued on his X handle on Thursday in commemoration of the October 1st Independence Day, maintained that there is no call for celebration when several people are still trapped in poverty, hunger, insecurity, and unemployment amongst others.
The human rights activist held that Nigerians cannot truly claim being independent while still being faced with lack of quality education, collapsed healthcare with embezzlement of public resources.
‘Today, Nigeria marks 66 years since the Union Jack was lowered and our green-white-green flag was raised.
‘But for millions of Nigerians, the fundamental promise of independence, freedom, dignity, prosperity, justice, and equality, remains unfulfilled.
‘We cannot celebrate independence while our people are trapped in poverty, hunger, unemployment, insecurity, darkness, and hopelessness.
‘We cannot call ourselves truly independent when our children are denied quality education, workers earn wages that cannot sustain their families, hospitals are collapsing, the paltry electricity that exists remains a luxury, and those entrusted with public resources loot with impunity.’ He wrote.
Sowore attributed the cause of country’s struggles to the successive ruling establishments who he accused of embezzling Nigeria’s wealth.
He maintained that Nigerians deserve a country where basic social amenities are available and accessible rather than empty promises.
‘Nigeria’s problem is not its people. Nigerians are hardworking, creative, resilient, and extraordinarily resourceful.
‘The tragedy is that successive ruling establishments have squandered our enormous human and natural wealth while demanding endless sacrifices from those who have the least.
‘At 66, Nigerians deserve more than ceremonies, speeches, flags, and further empty promises. They deserve equal rights and revolutionary justice.
‘They deserve a country where workers earn a living wage; where education and healthcare are accessible; where electricity works; where young people can build meaningful lives; where farmers can work without fear; and where no Nigerian is arrested, brutalized, or imprisoned simply for challenging those in power.’ He said.
The Sahara Reporters publisher called for the building of a Nigeria that is genuinely independent and free from what he described as internal colonisers.
‘The task before our generation is not merely to celebrate the independence handed to us in 1960. Our historic duty is to redo it.
‘We must build a Nigeria that is genuinely independent, not just from colonial rule, but from internal colonizers enmeshed in monumental corruption, oppression, poverty, injustice, ethnic manipulation, religious bigotry, divisive politics, and the political establishment that has held our people down for decades.
‘Nigeria must work for everyone, not a privileged few.’ He added.
