Buhari’s Independence Day broadcast uninspiring, signifies nothing, say Southern, Middle Belt leaders

The Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum (SMBLF) on Thursday expressed disappointment with the national broadcast by President Muhammadu Buhari on the occasion of the country’s 60th Independence, saying his speech was uninspiring and much like the tale full of sound and fury signifying nothing.

SMBLF expressed this view in a joint statement by Mr Yinka Odumakin for South-West, Chief Guy Ikokwu (South-East), Senator Bassey Henshaw (South-South) and Dr Isuwa Dogo (Middle- Belt), saying the president, who said he was engaging in self-reflection, never even remembered how the country’s founding fathers negotiated a federal constitution which put the nation on the path of development in the early years of independence until military came to disrupt things.

The leaders in the statement entitled: “60 years Anniversary Broadcast: Mere Sound And Fury,” said Buhari in his speech treated the whole nation to the usual bland sermons and empty rhetorics in the midst of all the troubles the country was going through that required the leadership to summon the constituent units to the roundtable with a way to resolving them.

“The Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum has examined the broadcast of President Buhari to mark the occasion of the 60 years of independence of Nigeria and disappointingly concludes that it was like the tale full of sound and fury signifying nothing.

ALSO READ: PDP governors want national conversation to reset Nigeria

“In the midst of all the country is going through that requires the leadership to summon the constituent units to the table of brotherhood to seek fundamental ways out all we were treated to were the usual bland sermons and empty rhetorics.

“The president said he was engaging in self-reflection but he never remembered how our founding fathers negotiated a federal constitution which put us on the path of development in the early years of independence until military intervention set us on the ruinous unitary lane which has fostered underdevelopment to the point that we are now the global Secretariat of poverty at 60,” SMBLF said.

The Forum said it was shameful that President Buhari, would on this type of occasion, be sermonising on why Nigerians had to pay more for fuel because other countries such as Ghana, Egypt and  Niger were paying more.

The leaders said it would have been more inspiring if he had used the opportunity to lay out the process of restructuring the country with a view to returning it to the path of productivity, autonomy for the federating units, among others, noting that it amounted to meaningless distraction “to leave Nigeria under its failing structure and be talking of launching ethical whatever.”

NIGERIAN TRIBUNE