A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party PDP in Ika South Local Government Area of Delta State, Comrade Tony Ugbejie has urged Nigerians to remain focused despite the present hardship, noting that the enthusiasm that greeted the stoppage of colonial rule in 1960 has long vanished amongst Nigerians.

Ugbejie who is a former student union activist said, recent governments have negated the initial expectations of Nigerians about the gains traceable to self-rule.

” When the Union Jack was dropped for the Green-White-Green Flag on October 1st, 1960, there were great expectations. This was further boosted by the discovery of oil a few years earlier to support foreign exchange earnings from cocoa and groundnuts. The steady growth that followed was truncated by the civil war and needless military coups.”

“Political conflicts dwarfed development in Nigeria in the 80s, the military governments that followed institutionalized corruption and nepotism.

” Naturally, with about twenty-four years of uninterrupted civil rule since 1999, we should be consolidating democratic government but this is not the case. Many politicians have become more desperate to attain power. This is at the expense of national growth. The political parties no longer have defined ideologies. Nigeria cannot get out of the woods if we continue this way”.

“I urge youths and technocrats to be more active in partisan politics because there is no alternative to democratic government.

“I do not know how our leaders feel to read about the levels of growth in Rwanda, Kenya, and even Sudan. Other countries will not apply brakes because they want us to catch up. I charge leaders in the various levels of government to invest more in education, health, and transport. These are some of the sectors that will put on the path of prominence and development.”