can neither legislate nor decree happiness into existence.  It does not work that way; and it can never work that way.

Revelations 21:24-26 says,   24:”The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor (glory) into it.

Professor Salisu Shehu is the Deputy Secretary-General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA).  In this interview, Shehu speaks on Nigeria at 57 and other issues.

ON day like this, exactly 57 years ago, Nigeria was on a festive and historic mood. It was the eve of October 1, 1960, the day that the United Kingdom had set aside to grant Nigeria independence as a sovereign state.

Ahead of tomorrow’s  57th independence anniversary of the nation, women from various walks of life and ethnic groups, under the auspices of Nigerian Women for Peaceful Co-Existence & Unity of Nigeria, have cautioned advocates of secession to tone down their rhetorics.

As Nigeria marks its 57th Independence anniversary tomorrow, tales of woes and despair are bound to rent the air. This is because every sector of the nation’s economy is busy taking stock of how it has fared, especially in the past threei years of President Muhammadu Buhari-led APC government. And for the entertainment sector, the story is not different.

There is a great role waiting for a player in Nigeria. There is need for a great patriotic and visionary leader to articulate a National Vision and Agenda of where Nigeria should be by 2040, to be at least a top middle income nation of over 300 million people and to quote from Vision 2010. “A united, industrious, caring, God-fearing democratic society committed to making the basic needs of life affordable for everyone and creating Africa’s leading economy”.

Emotions ran wild as we held hands,standing on our feet and singing that more meaningful and soul-stirring old national anthem of Nigeria. I looked at the eyes of Pastor Tunde Bakare as tears rolled down his ears .We had just by acclamation agreed on the last of the over 600 resolutions in an assembly of North and South of Nigeria without making use of the accursed ballot box.

Nigeria is a beautiful Country, naturally endowed and blessed by God. It is definedby political borders and boundaries without collective purpose and vision, and national ideology. Today’s political actors are more concerned about what they can get from the Nation than what to offer to build it. 

FORMER governor of Jigawa State, Alhaji Sule Lamido has become the first presidential aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to have an intimidating campaign office in the South East for the 2019 elections. The magnificent two-storey edifice consisting of six flats and adjoining offices located at Umuokpu area of Awka, was donated to the presidential hopeful by an indigene of the community, Chief Arize Ekelem, who is a close confidant of Lamido.

As we celebrate the 57th  flag independence of our great nation, Nigeria, I think there is no better determinant of the state of our nation than the state of her precious children. According to  Dr. Nelson Mandela,‘there can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.’ 

The object of re-structuring for which there is a widespread clamour among Nigerians, is not to break up the country or to enable agitators to secede from its sovereignty and territorial integrity. Far from that, the object is, by reforming the governmental structures and attuning them to the needs and wishes of the people, to ensure that the immense diversity of ethnic nationalities comprised in the state will continue to co-exist together in peace, prosperity and progress as citizens of one country united by common interests, common aspirations and a common destiny. 

Nigeria, perpetually, a country of huge potentials.   Independence came with great expectations. But   it’s been   57 years. And it’s   been unending tales, of   greatness that could have been.   Nigeria, frustratingly, always at crossroads.   She is always never far from a breakthrough. But always never distant from a   terminal catastrophe. After the civil war, and after a succession of military dictatorships, the worst   once seemed to be over. Democracy returned with promises and hopes. But the return of democracy has brought back   the nightmares of the 60s.

Elder-statesman, Chief Richard Akinjide (SAN) was effusive after reading the 2016 Independence Day publication of Saturday Vanguard, “Your Saturday Vanguard made other newspapers look small, it made them look ordinary.”

ALTHOUGH the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, has gone to court to quash the Federal High Court order proscribing it and declaring it a terror group, the news of the group’s ban was received with mixed feelings in the South-East.