Independence Day Message | 1 October 2026

This Nigeria Independence Day message goes first to the people of AMAC and Bwari, because you are the ones I answer to. On this 1st of October, 66 years after the flag first went up, I want to say plainly what I feel and what I believe we owe one another.

I feel pride, and I will not apologise for it. A country that began with so many languages, faiths and regional interests, and still stands, has done something remarkable. Our parents and grandparents built schools, markets and families on the promise of 1960, often with very little. I also feel impatience. Many of you feel it too. You work hard, and you still wait too long for light, water, safe roads and fair treatment. Pride and impatience belong together. Both come from loving this country enough to expect more of it.

Ownership: this country is ours

Independence meant the right to run our own affairs. Sixty-six years on, the question is whether ordinary people feel that ownership in their daily lives. A trader in Garki, a teacher in Kubwa and a young graduate in Bwari town should each be able to say, “This place is mine, and I have a say in how it is run.”

Ownership means citizens are not spectators. It means communities help decide what gets built and then watch over it. It means young people are given room to create value here instead of being told that opportunity lives somewhere else. Leadership that treats the people as owners behaves differently. It explains its decisions, welcomes questions and accepts that public office is held in trust.

Justice: the promise has to reach everyone

Freedom from colonial rule was only the first chapter. The next is a freedom that families can feel in an ordinary week. Can you get a fair hearing without knowing someone? Can your child get a decent education whatever your surname? Can a small business grow without being squeezed? Can a woman, a young man or a person living with a disability expect the same respect at every counter and in every office?

Justice is the slow, unglamorous work of making rules apply equally. A nation earns trust through fairness in small things, repeated every day. I believe we rebuild confidence in our institutions one fair outcome at a time.

Unity: our strength was always in each other

Anyone who has spent time in this constituency knows how many of us live side by side. Neighbours from every part of Nigeria share compounds, markets, worship centres and playing fields. In my own work I have seen how quickly suspicion fades when people share a pitch, a project or a table. That is why I am looking forward to the OJU football tournament in November, where all 22 wards will take the field together. A good match does not stop to ask where anyone’s grandparents came from.

Unity does not mean pretending we are the same. It means choosing, again and again, to build something larger than our differences, and refusing to let anyone profit from dividing us.

What I am asking of myself, and of you

Independence Day is a good moment for honesty. Nobody should expect a speech to fix a pothole or lower the price of food. What I can offer is a way of working: listen first, speak plainly, and measure myself against the standard of Ownership, Justice and Unity. These three words are the foundation of the OJU vision, and I want you to hold me to them.

If you are a parent, a trader, a student, a civil servant, an artisan or a first-time voter, this country is yours to shape. Join the conversation, tell us what your ward needs, and keep asking hard questions of everyone who seeks your trust, me included.

To every family in AMAC and Bwari, happy Independence Day. May the next year bring you peace at home, fairness in your dealings and good reason to hope. We have a country worth working for, and I intend to keep working for it alongside you.

Hon. Engr. Olufemi James Urrah (OJU)

SDP Candidate

House of Representatives

AMAC/BWARI Federal Constituency

OJU 2027

Ownership • Justice • Unity