The Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has asked Nigerians to perish the thought of dividing the country, noting that ‘God made us Nigerians for a purpose’.
In a goodwill message to commemorate the feast of Eid al-Adha, Atiku appealed to Nigerians to sacrifice for the country, as the festive season was a reminder for all of us to make sacrifices for the betterment of humanity.
“Sacrifice To God For The Good of Others Is The Spirit of Eid al-Adha During Eid al-Adha, we honour the submission of the Patriarch, Prophet Ibrahim to the wish of Almighty Allah to sacrifice his son. This feast is, therefore, a reminder for all of us to make sacrifices for the betterment of humanity. There are happenings across the globe that tell us that the world is in dire need of love and peace. Our dear fatherland, Nigeria is currently at a crossroads.
Tensions strew our nation and never have we been in dire need of love for our neighbour as today. Thus, my message to the nation as we celebrate Eid al-Adha s that we all have to sacrifice for the good of Nigeria. Everybody cannot sacrifice everything for Nigeria, but everyone can sacrifice something for her to move forward from the place of anger, bitterness, distrust and disunity.
I urge all Nigerians of faith to remember that God made us all Nigerians for a purpose. If He wanted to, God could have made us into many distinct nations. But in His wisdom, He made us all into one corporate, indivisible country. We must accept that we are not wiser than our Creator.
Therefore, let us perish every thought of dividing Nigeria and focus our energies on reviving our fatherland. We should be willing to sacrifice for future generations of Nigerians who will not even be around to thank us. In my opinion, the first sacrifice we have to implement is to make Nigeria an equitable society where justice flourishes.
Every cry of marginalisation will be silenced when the aggrieved see that there is national assimilation. Let us remember that Prophet Ibrahim left an inheritance and that is the cause of the celebration today. If we profess the faith of Ibrahim, we must likewise sacrificially manage our economy in a way that serves not just the present elite’s interests, but the interest of successive future generations.
Most importantly, at a leadership level, we ought to make sacrifices, the most immediate being to ensure that the fundamental rights of citizenry is respected and not repressed. I wish all Nigerians a happy Eid al-Adha.
I wish I could be in every Nigerian home to share my Sallah feast with you and your families, but as that is not possible, permit me to send my love into all homes in this country to wish you the best today, tomorrow and forever.”
