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Saturday, October 2, 2010
October 1, 2010 marked the Nigeria’s 50th anniversary as an independent country, having achieved independence from the British on October 1, 1960.
Celebrations rocked the nation.
Nigerians know how to celebrate; the skies above Abuja hosted an air show, Nigerian’s saw the world’s biggest cake at the National Stadium, and President Goodluck Jonathan presented 50 Golden Jubilee independence anniversary awards.
There were also a host of visiting dignitaries in Abuja, Cameroonian president Paul Biya; Joseph Kabila, the President of Democratic Republic of Congo; and even the Duke of Gloucester, Prince Richard was in Nigeria to mark the occasion.
Unfortunately celebrations were not the only thing rocking the nation. The celebration was marred by two bombs going off in Abuja that left a path of death and injury in its wake.
Just a couple of hours before the bomb story broke, media outlets received a statement from Jomo Gbomo, spokesman for the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, giving short warning for the bombings. The group later offered its condolences for those who lost their lives that day.
Besides the bombings there was another tragedy, three men died while trying to get some of the 10,000 bags of rice being distributed by Nigeria’s first lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, as part of the anniversary celebrations. A Daily Champion report said the men died after inhaling tear gas used by police to disperse protesters who alleged that some of the rice had been misappropriated. According to the reports about 250 bags of the rice were made off with by government officials.
As is the case in many instances, you have to take the good with the bad. In the estimation of some, Nigeria is not doing half bad after only 50 years of independence. If you look at back in time to the US, 50 years after its independence things were not so smooth there either. You had the US government forcing native Americans off their ancestral lands and slavery was still strong in the south. While Nigeria’s independence came in a more technologically advanced time it still has had to face struggles on different levels.
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