I do have a dream for Nigeria...
My fellow Nigerians,I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom from poverty in the history of our nation.
Two score years ago, a few great Nigerians, signed the documents of Independence. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Nigerians who had been placed under colonial rule and economic rape. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of our dependence on our colonizers.
But forty-seven years later, the Nigerian still is impoverished. Forty-seven years later, the life of the average Nigerian is still sadly crippled by lack of social amenities and the chains of political oppression. Forty seven years years later, the Nigerian lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of petroleum prosperity. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition, and say enough is enough.
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. Nineteen sixty was a beginning. Those who hope that the common man needs to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in Nigeria until the common man is granted his due right to pursue his livelihood with all the social amenities that he deserves. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of abundance emerges.
But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of plentiful. In the process of gaining our economic freedom we must not be guilty of laziness and lethargy. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for wealth by drinking from the cup of corruption and ill gotten gains. ....
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great lack, unemployment and frustration. Some of you have come fresh from narrow face me I face you apartments. Some of you have come from areas where your quest to break free from poverty left you battered by the storms of failures and broken dreams and staggered by the winds of corruption, injustice and harsh government policies. You have been the veterans of let downs and injustice. Continue to work with the faith that unearned hardship is redemptive.
Go back to Aba, go back to Ilesha, go back to Warri, go back to Jos, go back to Kaduna, go back to the slums and ghettos of Ajegunle, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.
I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the Nigerian Will.
I have a dream that one day on the hills of Ondo the sons of Umuahia and the sons of Yobe will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood, regardless of tribe, religion or creed.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Oyo, a state sweltering with the heat of political turmoil, sweltering with the heat of hidden agenda and political thuggery, will be transformed into an oasis of brotherly love and progress.
I have a dream that my little children will one day return to live in a nation where they will not be judged by who their father is, but by the merit of their contribution to the growth of our motherland.
I have a dream today.
Let prosperity ring from the curvaceous slopes of Igarra!
And when this happens, When we allow our fellow citizen access to the riches of our country, when we let it rain from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, politician and common man alike, Igbo, Hausa and Yoruba, Minorities and the down trodden, will be able to join hands and sing the song of a new beginning; we are there at last, there in our rightful place in the League of Nations, thank God we are there at last.
'Nuff respect Dr. Martin, I hope you no vex say I alter your speech.

3Comment(s):
Speak it brother...
Quoting Martin Luther King again (this time not altered..lol)..."Our Lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter".
So once again brother, speak it... I hear you, we hear you.
I was tempted to adapt that speech for Nigeria but it should be adapted for all places where opportunity is lost to corruption and people suffer in the midst of plenty.
I heard that speech 4 times this morning and how true that almost 44 years after, the dreams are still unfulfilled and no one has stepped into those shoes except probably a man of the stature of Mandela.
Amen to that!!!!