From JULIANA TAIWO-OBALONYE, Abuja Monday, November 07, 2011
President Goodluck Jonathan has warned that incessant crises and insecurity in the country would drive away investors and ensure that the citizens continue to live in poverty. The president gave the warnings when Vice President Namadi Sambo led a delegation of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to pay him the traditional Sallah homage at House 7 in the Presidential Villa yesterday.
He regretted that the peace and sacrifice that the Eid-el-Kabir signified was violated, warning that “if the country is not peaceful, nobody will want to come and invest, without investment you cannot stimulate the country’s economy; we will continue to live in poverty.”
He reiterated his government’s total commitment to make changes, to improve the condition of lives of the people to ensure the future generation did not pass through the pains the present generation was going through.
President Jonathan in his remark said, “I thank all of you and welcome you to the State House that you have come to pay the traditional Sallah homage this particular year, 1432 Hijrah coinciding with our own 2011.
“As we all know, this is a very significant period in your religion. Somehow they are similar teachings in the Christian faith. It is a period that all of us are supposed to be dedicated, submissive to Allah, just like the whole ceremony of the ram killing which depicts that Allah owns everything or we can sacrifice everything to Him and He can provide everything that we need as long as we live in the ways that He expects us to live.
“It is quite a significant period; as I welcome and congratulate you this morning, I also want to use this opportunity to extend same to all the Muslims in Nigeria and indeed Muslims all over the world. We thank Allah for bringing us to this day that we are celebrating this year.
“It is a period that we are all expected to live in peace but as a nation we have our own challenges, even during this holy period we still have incidence happening here and there. So I use this opportunity to plead with all of you and indeed all Muslims in any part of this country to continue to pray for peace of this country because without peace we cannot develop as a nation. If the country is not peaceful nobody will want to come and invest, without investment you cannot stimulate the country’s economy, we will continue to live in poverty.
“The government is totally committed to make changes, to improve the condition of lives of our people so that our future generation will not pass through the pains we are passing through today.” The Minister of Federal Capital Territory, Bala Mohammed had earlier said it was a tradition to pay homage to the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Also, Sambo who spoke on behalf of the congregation he led said, “we have come to extend our sincere greetings.
“We are here this morning to extend our homage and sincere greetings of this great month of Ed-Kabir, which we call Sallah period. We prayed Almighty Allah to shower His blessings graciously on Mr. President, to all other leaders of this country and Nigeria in general and that He will bless this country, will allow our great president to lead us into the transformation of Nigeria, to be one of the greatest nations within this period. “We pray to Almighty Allah that we will have peace, unity and progress in Nigeria and He will continue to grant our president the good health, the wisdom, the strength to continue with the good leadership that we are already witnessing in this country.
“We thank Almighty Allah for granting us this chance and we pray for more of such periods. We thank you and God bless you all.” In a chat with State House correspondents after the ceremony, the Inspector General of Police, Hafiz Ringim, while condemning the weekend killings in Borno and Yobe states by the Boko Haram sect, assured that their activities would be checkmated. Death toll in the attacks in Damaturu (Yobe State), Maiduguri (Borno) and Kaduna was put at 66. The breakdown showed 63 were killed in Damaturu, two in Kaduna and one in Maiduguri.
The Kaduna incident which saw two women being killed in a Catholic Church in Zango Kataf area was, however, linked to revenge attacks. Notable indignitaries present included Attorney General of the Federation, Mohammed Adoke, minister of defence, ministers of state for finance and health, chief of air staff, former speaker of House of Representatives, Ghali Na’abba, former PDP chairman, Ahmadu Ali, former minister of sport, Samaila Sambawa, among others.
via The Nation
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