Mark: Nigeria destined for greatness

Senate President David Mark yesterday urged Nigerians to have faith and remain steadfast in promoting peace and unity, no matter the challenges.

Mark, in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Kola Ologbondiyan, to mark this year’s Independence Anniversary, said: “The indivisibility of our nation is not negotiable because there is no better place than Nigeria.”

He recalled the nation’s chequered political history since 1960, during which Nigeria went through a 30-month civil war, ethno-religious conflicts and assured that “our crises are surmountable.”

The Senate President dismissed as untrue, insinuation in some quarters that Nigeria has not made progress since independence, saying: “Let us cast our minds back a little and see the number of road networks, schools, universities, health institutions, telecommunications and a host of others.

“We may not have been where we want to be, but we have made appreciable progress and we can do more. All we need to do is strengthen our unity as one people with one mission and purpose. The stable democracy has offered us the opportunity to harness our abundant resources for good.

“Nigerians passed through challenges in the past and we came out of them.  The security challenges, especially this Boko Haram insurgency, can be defeated if we unite to fight them.

“I believe the Boko Haram insurgency is alien to us as a people. We have the capacity to defeat them and confine them to the dustbin of history.”

He promised that genuine complaints and agitations among Nigerians “arising from the structure of our polity can be addressed by the government,” but was quick to point out that “we cannot correct perceived imbalances by taking up arms against our brothers, sisters and nation.”