NIGERIA @ 50: FCT Minister, Senator Bala Mohammed (M), inspecting facilities for the 50th independence anniversary celebration, in Abuja.

Accra — Nigeri-an Community in Ghana on Thursday advised fellow compatriots to use the golden jubilee celebration as a period of sober reflection on how to move the nation forward.

Speaking to a correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, in Accra, a cross section of the community also advised Nigerians to  use the occasion to thank God “for His love and mercies for the country, in spite of all the challenges to our unity in the last 50 years”.

Mrs. Adebisi Coker, a banker, said that at 50, Nigeria should now move from being a potentially rich nation to a “rich, industrialised nation”.

“For many years we have heard about the  economic potentials of Nigeria, it is time for the government to harness these potentials and translate them to national wealth.

“We have abundant natural resources, and the manpower, but what we need is credible leaders to translate these potentials to tangible products for local and international markets,” she stressed.

Coker, while drawing similarities between Nigeria and Ghana, said  when Ghana celebrated its golden jubilee in 2008, it recorded only few achievements but “these were tangible for everyone to see, and this I think should be a lesson for us”.

In his contribution, Mr. Gerald Nwigwe,  a retail shop owner, expressed concern, over the pace of development in Nigeria and stressed the need to urgently fix epileptic power supply in the country and provide  basic infrastructure to rural communities.

Nwigwe said that at 50, the nation had not done “so well to  warrant the pomp and pageantry attached to the celebration.

“Apart from the roles of the media and civil society in sustaining democracy and peaceful co-existence, government had failed on its promises to the people in various areas,” he said.

He urged Nigerians to vote wisely in the 2011 elections, noting that “if wrong leaders are voted into office, they will send the nation 50 years back in terms of development.

“But above all said and done,  we thank God for keeping us as one big nation, because our diversity is our strength”.

Also speaking to NAN Mr Pascal Emenike, Secretary General of  the Nigerian Union of Traders Association of Ghana, lauded the media, and Civil Society Organisations for fostering national unity, and democracy.

“The watchdog role of both bodies in promoting national integration, had made Nigeria an indivisible state,” he said.
NAN reports that more than two million Nigerians reside in Ghana.