We shouldn’t spend resources debating division – Buhari

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari Sunday said that the country should not spend her resources and energy debating disintegration.

The President also said that the noises in some quarters about the division of the country was part of the rebirth going on, adding that God had designed that the country will be together.

President Buhari spoke Sunday in his address on the occasion of the Eid- Kabir hosted by his wife Aisha Buhari as part of the Sallah festivities said what was required by every citizen was sacrifice so as to take the nation to the destiny designed by God.

The President represented by the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo at the gathering at the Old Banquet Hall, Presidential Villa, Abuja, said the nation God had in mind while bringing every ethnic nationalities together was a diverse nation.

Although President Buhari was unable to be present at the occasion because he was celebrating Sallah at his home town Daura having been away from his country home for over a year said he held the belief that Nigeria will remain together.

According to him, “The significance of this celebration is the willingness of Abraham to make the great sacrifice ‎of possibly the dearest thing to him, his son Isaac.

“Obviously, anyone who knows anything at all about the kinds of things that…..it is a willingness to ‎make a great sacrifice. And Abraham was able to make that sacrifice.

“And he made it in order to be able to fulfill his own destiny and the destiny of his people.

“The message today is that our nation’s elites, Muslims, Christians and all ethnicities must recognize that we also must make sacrifices, the sacrifices that are necessary ‎to attain the destiny that God has brought unto our people.

“I am one of those who is extremely confident that our nation ‎will remain united because I am convinced that God’s plans and purpose for Nigeria is that we would be the preeminent black nation in the world.”

Continuing, the President said the country would continue to show forth in culture, in technology and in commerce which he stated was God’s investment in the black race.

He said, “This is why today for every …  ‎four or five blacks, some people say one must be a Nigerian. That is not a mean attainment at all.

“That nation that God has in mind is a diverse nation. Diverse in resources, in ideas, in opinions.

“The kind of nation that we have, where there is an argument about something everywhere, before you get tired of that lone argument, another one arise and before you finish with that one there is yet another one.

“This is the type of country that God has ordained where we have diversity of opinions, diversity of ideas. People saying their own things here and there.

“But, He has also planned that this country will remain together, and that we will be a nation that is gifted just as we have the oil, the gas, and the most arable lands than most continents.

“This is a country that has all of what other countries will travel and spend money ‎looking for the sort of resources that we have. All of the tourism resources that we have people will travel everywhere looking for it.

“It is a nation of men and women so creative and prosperous. That we will feed the entire continent and create opportunities ‎for the world. All the different ethnic groups are important in that arrangement.

“On every ethnicity, incredible minds, brilliant and creative people doing all manner of things.

“Our energies and resources shouldn’t be spent again on debate about division. Our manifest destiny is to be a great nation, not to be a nation where we are talking about division.

“We must focus out time, our energies and our resources on being that great nation that God has called us to be.

“I think we have started building that country already.

“Despite all the noise that we hear, all that noise is part of the building. Everybody knows that you cannot have birth without noise. No woman delivers a baby without some noise and without some pains.

“What we are hearing today are the ‎noises and the pains of that great nation that God is about to give birth to.”

Wife of the President, Aisha Buhari thanked Nigerians for the prayers offered for her husband’s speedy recovery while he was bedridden in a United Kingdom (UK) hospital.

Represented by the Minister of Interior, Lt Gen Abdulrahman Dambazzau, she urged Nigerians to support the administration’s effort to sustain the peace and development in the country.

She said, “Without development there will be no peace and without peace there will be no development.”

Messages from other speakers including the representative of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) , Rev Israel Akanji, and Special Assistant to the President on Prosecution, Okoi Obono- Obla centered on Nigeria’s unity.