Democracy Day: ‘Nigerians have a choice to right wrongs of the past’

By Frank Ikpefan, Abuja

A former Nigerian ambassador to Saudi Arabia, London and Equatorial Guinea, Hassan Tukur, has said that democracy day presents Nigerians the choice of re-writing the wrongs of the past.

He noted that citizens must use the opportunities offered by the day to make choices about socio-political challenges, as well as weep over all missed opportunities.

The ex-envoy also said that the day presents the country and its people the opportunity of weaving together a future that posterity will be grateful for.

Tukur, who is the Chairman and Board of Trustees of Unveiling and Rebranding Initiative (URNI), a non-governmental organisation, said this in a statement yesterday in Abuja to mark this year’s Democracy Day.

He said that present leaders must begin to build a future that all Nigerians will be a part of as well as the kind that is solid enough to support the dreams of the next generation.

Tukur said: “We will be presented with the choice of re-writing the wrongs and weaving together a future that posterity will be grateful for; a future that we will be a part of as much as the kind that is solid enough to support the dreams of the next generation.

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“Great men plant trees whose shade they know that they wouldn’t sit under and as we may have heard the saying that, the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago (or even 60, as in our case), but the next best time is now.

“We will need to get our acts together and join the ‘League of Nations’ who are on the forward march. That’s what we deserve.

“We will roll our sleeves and build together leaders and citizens alike and use all of the tools of developments that we can muster and leverage technology to leap-frog in our forward march.”

He said that URNI project is set to mobilise a mass of change agents who will leverage on the scaling effect of technology to push for a positive renaissance of nationhood.

“We will tell our story in a way that fosters hope and emphasizes the positives and hopefully create a new narrative that will contribute towards making our nation a desirable one to live in,” he explained.