By SaharaReporters, New York

Nigerian pro-democracy activists based in New York today warned governors and other public office holders planning to visit the city to participate in the annual Independence anniversary celebration to steer clear of the city and remain at home in Nigeria.

A group, Organization for the Advancement of Nigerians, has lined up a three-day celebration beginning today. Political office holders are usually invited to grace the annual event.

But the activists, under the aegis of the Nigerian Liberty Democratic Forum, NDLF,  said there was no basis for the kind of celebration being planned as the country has nothing  to celebrate.

The NDLF, in a statement by its Executive Director, Bukola Oreofe and Director, International Relations and Publicity, Willie Nwiido, said any public official who waste public funds in travelling to the event would be confronted by an elaborate protest scheduled to coincide with a celebratory rally OAN has scheduled for Saturday.

“It has become a custom for derelict and corrupt Nigerian state governors to besiege the US in order to participate in the annual Nigerian Independence day parade in New York City,” the activists said.

“These inept governors are content to abandon their hapless, impoverished citizens to their dismal fate even on a grandly symbolic occasion as Nigeria’s Independence Day.”

The group then warned, “To these governors – who use this opportunity to launder money and waste their states’ scarce resources on estacode and other expenses for themselves and their bloated contingents – we must send a clear, unambiguous message: STAY AT HOME! “

The group said Nigeria had nothing to celebrate given the corruption and misgovernment that has characterized the leadership of the country in the last 50 years.

It therefore called on Nigerians in New York and environs to come out in large number for the protest meant to serve signals that citizens would no longer tolerate the ruling elites’ ineptitude and graft.

The protest, which has been dubbed: “Free Nigeria Rally”, the statement said, will hold  on Saturday Oct 9th 2010 starting from 11.00 am at 54th Street on 2nd Avenue and continuing to 44th Street on 2nd Avenue (in front of the Nigeria House).


The statement added, “In 50 years as an independent nation, Nigeria has earned almost half a trillion dollars in revenue from crude oil. Yet, the vast majority of Nigerians wallow in dire conditions of living.

“The vision and dream of our founding fathers to have a prosperous, strong and united nation have been truncated by a succession of selfish, greedy and unscrupulous rulers who have steered the Nigerian ship like drunken sailors.

“Nigeria has become a fifty-year old nation with retarded growth, filled with despairing citizens and burdened with a bleak future.”

“The members of the Nigerian ruling class – military as well as civilian – have over the last several decades demonstrated an unbridled desire for the destruction of the country they were meant to lead.


“Since 1999, Nigeria’s pseudo-democracy has witnessed wasted opportunities and the grand corruption of the Olusegun Obasanjo administration, the incompetence of the Umaru Yar'Adua years, and the profligacy of Goodluck Jonathan's government.
There seems to exist an abiding covenant amongst Nigerian rulers to bring down the country.

“Tragically, some of the shameless characters whose perfidy authored Nigeria’s current comatose condition are jostling to return to power. The Ibrahim Babangidas and Abubakar Atikus, implicated or cited in acts of massive corruption against the interests of the Nigerian people, are poised to deploy their ill-gotten wealth in attempts to steal power in the 2011 presidential election. Nigerians ought to resist their gratuitous insult.
 
“Please come out to join us to make the point that we can no longer permit those who abort Nigerians’ genuine aspirations to get away with their treachery.”



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