HID Awolowo, Presbyterian Prelate congratulate Buhari

TORRENTS of congratulatory messages have continued to pour in for President-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) for his victory in the March 28 presidential poll.

Chairperson of the Yoruba Unity Forum and wife of the first Premier of the old Western Region, Chief Mrs H I D Awolowo has congratulated the President-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) and described his March 28 presidential election victory as “historic”.

The Prelate and Moderator of the General Assembly of The Presbyterian Church of Nigeria, Most Rev. Prof. Emele Mba Uka has also congratulated the retired general and charged him to ensure that his tenure would usher in the birth of a new nation with an administration committed not to dictatorship but to principled governance.

In a congratulatory letter sent to Buhari and signed by Mrs. Awolowo as well as her Deputy, Reverend Bolanle Gbonigi and the Secretary, Senator Tony Adefuye, the Forum commended the President-elect for focusing on issues during the campaigns that preceded the “hard-fought contest.”

The letter reads; “The Chairperson, Yeye Oodua, Chief (Mrs.) H.I.D. Awo lowo and the entire members of Yoruba Unity Forum, the umbrella body for all Yoruba socio-cultural organizations in Nigeria and in the Diaspora, felicitates with you, Your Excellency and the Vice President-elect on your historic victory at the March 28th 2015 presidential election.

“The electoral contest, no doubt, was a hard fought one particularly as you contested against an incumbent President, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.

”We commend your decision to focus on issues of ultimate concern to majority of Nigerians during your electioneering campaigns. This singular act, Your Excellency, is a clear indication of your preparedness to confront these issues with a view to surmounting them and moving our country forward.

“We therefore appeal that you carry all Nigerians along in the new dispensation as the hopes and aspirations of our people are very high and we pray you will fulfill these expectations.

”The task of rebuilding the country certainly requires the cooperation of all Nigerians and the Yoruba Unity Forum pledges to support you and your team to restore greatness again to our dear country Nigeria.”

According to the Director of Information and Public Affairs, The Presbyterian Church of Nigeria, Reverend Kalu U. Eme, in a message to the retired general whom he described as the “Abraham Lincoln of Nigeria,” the Prelate referred to Buhari’s acceptance speech as the best “I have ever heard from our civilian/military rulers since my undergraduate days at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, when the first coup took place.

“I feel so encouraged by this acceptance speech that I no longer feel the threat of being Islamized or persecuted or denied my citizenship right to live and work in any part of this country. I pray that this in-coming administration shall put the scourge of Boko Haram’s suicide bombing of churches and mosques, motor parks and schools to rest. There will be no more fears of abductions of our school children and those that have been abducted shall now be brought back to their families to continue their schooling.

“I thank God for the firm promise of the President-elect to treat every Nigerian as his own not as a stranger or an infidel.

After all, we as Nigerians dwell in the same country, eat the same kind of food, drink the same water, breath the same air, wear similar dresses, trade in the same market and use the same currency, travel on the same planes, cars and buses. Our children attend the same schools, write the same examinations and obtain the same certificates. We intermarry across tribes and ethnicities as well as religions.

All these form a stronger bond that ought to unite us much more than the abstract ones which often threaten to separate us. In a situation where the factors of life that unite us grossly surpass those that divide us, is there any wisdom in sacrificing unity and cooperation on the altar of conflict and unhealthy rivalry?

“Therefore, let all of us embrace peace and unity and eschew violence and let brotherly love continue. Let the government help us to enjoy the privileges of our corporate citizenship as Nigerians without any fear of molestation in any part of the country.
“This is what God requires of Nigerians and indeed from our leaders. It is on account of this that I consider the President-Elect, General Mohammed Buhari the Abraham Lincoln of Nigeria. Lincoln suffered many reverses in his bid to govern the United States of America.

In 1860 he was finally elected the President of the United States. God honoured his persistence and granted him the sacred opportunity to govern at America’s most turbulent historic moment that called for the abolition of slave and slavery. Lincoln at great personal cost stood for the unity of the United States and by the grace of God he succeeded’.

The cleric also commended the statesmanship of the incumbent President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan in accepting defeat without resentment or rancour and for his humility in congratulating Buhari even before the official announcement of the result by the Independent National Elections Commission, INEC. He urged all Christians to uphold the in-coming administration in prayer.