TheCable

Abdulrahman AbdulRazaq, governor of Kwara, says Nigeria is growing on all fronts despite the numerous challenges facing the country.

A statement by Rafiu Ajakaye, AbdulRazaq’s chief press secretary, quoted him as saying this during the Democracy Day celebration on Saturday in Ilorin, the state capital.

The governor asked Nigerians to make a deliberate effort to help build the nation for it to remain secure and united.

“I felicitate Kwarans, and indeed all Nigerians, on this day of June 12 which has come to symbolise the struggle of our people for human rights, participatory democracy and development,” AbdulRazaq said.

“Whatever the challenges of nation-building confronting our fatherland, we are moving ahead in all indices of development, while institutions of democracy are growing stronger and getting more mature.

“The growing public consciousness around issues of rights and development, the widening space and platforms through which public opinions are ventilated, and the increasingly responsive, yet firm leadership, underline the fact that we are moving.

“Even so, we must, as a people, strike a delicate balance between rights and responsibilities as citizens so that we can always have a country to call our own.

“As we mark another June 12, we should build a consensus around the indivisibility of the Nigerian state and make deliberate efforts, individually and collectively, to make it greater and more prosperous.

“I join Mr President, my colleague governors, and our compatriots across the world to pay glowing tributes to all the heroes and heroines of our democracy, dead or alive, sung and unsung whose toiling birthed this republic.”

AbdulRazaq added that the responsibility lies on Nigerians to “continue to face up to the challenges of nation-building” as many great nations have done.

“That way, we can bequeath a better, stronger, more prosperous, more secure, and more united country to generations unborn,” the governor said.