“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. Whatever the challenges of nation building confronting our fatherland, the truth is that we are pacing ahead in all indices of development while institutions of democracy are growing stronger and getting more mature,” the Governor said.

“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 making progress. 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. We should exercise the freedoms guaranteed by our constitution with corresponding responsibility towards ensuring peace, security, unity and progress in our nation.

“I join Mr. President, my colleague-Governors, and our compatriots across the world, to salute all the heroes and heroines of our democracy, sung and unsung, whose toiling had berthed this republic. Our responsibility is to continue to face up to the challenges of nation building, as many great and older nations do, so that we can bequeath a better, stronger, more prosperous, more secure, and more united country to generations unborn.”