A Reminisce of Yar'dua's 1st Speech

“Your country has a new President,” She said. “An acting President” I corrected drily. And we both kept mum over the issue as I reminisced over an old article I wrote after President Umaru Yar’dua gave his first Presidential speech. His words tingled in our ears with pleasure… but did anything come of it? How much water has passed under the bridge since 2007! And with our new acting-President Goodluck Jonathan, we do not know whether to set our expectations high or low. But all the same, to sum up a new love letter: good luck to us Nigerians!

The old love letter: Congratulations Nigerians! We have a new government. Did you listen to the intoxicating speech given by our new President? That sounds so good... “Our New President”. Anyway, I was privilege to read the speech again this morning and I gained a broader understanding of why the world was excited after they listened to President Umaru Yar'adua's Presidential speech. The content...is sure worth an ovation. If the power of presidential speech has anything to do with their performance, I cannot help but join Mr. Richard Gozney (The British High Commissioner) say that indeed a great future awaits Nigeria.

“Fellow Citizens, I ask you all to march with me into the age of restoration. Let us work together to restore our time-honored values of honesty, decency, generosity, modesty, selflessness, transparency and accountability...”says Mr. President. “Let us recapture the mood of optimism... Let us join together now to build a society worthy of our Children. We have the talent. We have the intelligence. We have the ability. The challenge is great. The goal is clear. The time is now.” he added.

Forgive me if you don't understand my excitement here, but this is the first time this generation is witnessing a Civilian-to-Civilian transition of power. The freshness of this new administration is worth jubilating over. Moreover, we would be dancing to a different tune if the third-term bid had made it through.

We all know that Nigeria as a whole has not been as easy as its spelling but we might as well stand on the right foot and join this new government in moving things right. Lets shun all manner of cynicism like the president advised and march on in the fear of God to restoration. Happy new dawn Nigeria. We hope in days to come, we will still have a course to dance.
Remember, this is a “Let us...” affair. All hands should be on deck to move Nigeria forward... everyone has a role to play. And once again Nigerians... Congratulations! And Mr. President, we hope you will back up your words with action. Everyone will be watching you lead by example and hopefully as the head moves, the body will follow.