By Motolani Ayeniloye
A human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Femi Falana, has expressed his shock and misgiving to President Muhammadu Buhari’s Independence Day speech, when he was praising Britain for uniting Nigeria.
“For the 1st of October 1960 to happen, all hands were on deck, East, West, and North all joined together to commemorate the birth of the United States of Nigeria. Today should not only be remembered as the day the British handed over authority to Nigerians, but also as a day that brought Nigerians of all ethnic groups, religions, and regions together,” ” the President said in his Independence Day speech to celebrate Nigeria’s 61st anniversary.
Falana, however, said that Nigeria is still suffering from underdevelopment as a result of its failure to demolish structures erected by the British colonialists.
“When President Muhammadu Buhari thanked the British for uniting us in his broadcast on October 1, I wondered where it came from, given the colonial regime which operated in divide-and-rule,” he remarked.
Falana declared that it has been “so far, so horrible” since Nigeria’s independence in 1960 when asked if things had been “so far, so good.”
