Colonialism is better than this independence —Colonel Umar

AS Nigeria marks its 51st independence anniversary today, there have been various reactions from people, especially eminent Nigerians calling for peace and tranquillity.



Col (rtd) Abubakar Umar called on Nigerians to embrace Jonathan’s transformation agenda. “This country is in dire need of transformation, the situation is that 80- percent of the population is living below poverty line. Five percent of the half a million graduate every year cannot get employment, therefore unemployment is high and the level of insecurity is not explainable.

The level of corruption has also gone up, so in this kind of economic social, Nigerian needs a new transformation. The transformation doesn’t require not only the president but every Nigerian to put hands on deck and make sure that this transformation happen. If not sooner than later, Nigeria might become a failed state.

“My opinion is that if there will be any transformation in this country, everybody must be ready. And the elite must be responsible. They are trying to build more various constituencies, they are pushing the country into state politics and which is most irresponsible. The politicians are trying to gain more power to be in control of this country.

“It has always been said that we have not made progress but I think, everything boils down to leadership. The leadership has failed to march on to the success leading to development and what accounts for this is corruption. Some persons in the country have succeeded in acquiring the resources of this country that whatever they do is based on their personal interest.

All this has been contributed to not moving the country forward. There is no opportunity left to the common man to survive which hasn’t contributed to the development of this country. I’m sure even the colonial masters that have felt sorry for this county because things were more organised and functional during the colonial days. The colonial period was said to be more organised and stabilised than now.

Looking at 1960 to this present time, the level of development we have achieved is nothing to right home about. For instance, the Nigerian Railway Corporation established by the colonial masters is not the same we are using today. The expectation was that we were free from colonial exploitation and that we would be able to move our resources to our own benefit but this has not happened. It will appear that the colonial time was better for average Nigerians than the situation we find ourselves in today. ”