“No administration since 1999 had received more cooperation from the legislature like President Buhari.”

This was the view of the Senator Bala Ibn Na’Allah, who stood in for the Senate President, Bukola Saraki when residents of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) paid the President Sallah homage today, Friday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Senator Na’Allah promised that the National Assembly will keep supporting the vision of President Buhari administration for a greater Nigeria.

This was even as President Buhari called on all Nigerians to work towards salvaging the nation from the shackles of past wrongs by sharing in the collective vision for a greater Nigeria and contributing individually to realize the goal.

He called on all the citizens to embrace the reality that Nigeria must exist and continue as one nation and that the country needs all its human and material resources to succeed.

“We have no other country than Nigeria. We may as well stay and salvage it together.”

President Buhari told the gathering of religious leaders, traditional rulers, security chiefs and top government officials to start expanding the frontiers for development by sensitizing their “constituencies’’ to work harder for the collective good of the country.

“Please try to persuade your constituencies to work harder for the greatness of this nation.”

President Buhari said that Nigeria has a peculiar advantage of being blessed with enormous human and material resources, noting that the potentials could be turned around for the greater good of everyone.

The President commended former Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, for the efforts at discovering and repositioning Nigeria’s mineral potentials.

“I hope Fayemi will succeed in the elections and lead Ekiti State. He is hardworking and patriotic, but Nigerian politics can be unpredictable.”

The President, who disclosed that he could not fast last year due to ill health, said he was able to fully participate in the spiritual exercise this year, as the  benefits were not optional for any healthy Muslim.

In his remarks, the Minister of FCT, Muhammad Musa Bello, said that the Ramadan Fasting provided an auspicious opportunity to pray for the nation, and the wellbeing of the President and his family.

President Buhari also received women groups led by his wife, Aisha Buhari, President of the National Council of Women Societies, Dr. Laraba Shoda and former Deputy Governor of Plateau State, Pauline Tallen.

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has pleaded to Nigerian Muslims not to distort the good virtue of Islamic religion.

Atiku, in his message to Muslims as they prepare to observe Eid-el-Fitr which marked the end of 30-day Fasting, advised them to continue to show good examples of love, tolerance and peaceful disposition at all times.

Such attitudinal disposition, he added, would prevent the religion being perceived in bad light and distortion.

The former Vice President condemned religious extremists for giving Islam a bad  name, even as he advised Muslim parents to protect their children from the negative influences of those who preach hate and intolerance.
He said that the virtues of the sacrifice should be sustained beyond the Ramadan by Muslims, adding that Fasting period makes believers appreciate the impact of hunger.
Atiku said that the spirit of the Ramadan creates a bond of empathy between the haves and have-nots, explaining that compassion “is an important ingredient of our common humanity.”
He called on Muslims to show greater commitment to peace, unity  and tolerance in order to create harmony and understanding in the country. He said unity is a condition for building a formidable nation, adding that without unity, a country is politically vulnerable.
Atiku called on political leaders at all levels and of all persuasion to have the fear of God and the love for the people in their activities.
He advised leaders to use power fairly and justly, even as he stressed the need for politicians to be accessible to the people instead of living in fortresses of power that detaches them from the reality of the people. [myad]

A Kaduna-based Islamic scholar, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to resign with immediate effect for his inability to stop bloodshed across the country.

He recalled that he made similar call on former President Goodluck Jonathan because of blood in his hands as a result of Boko Haram insurgents that were putting bombs everywhere and the government was not doing enough.

“Anybody killed under your regime, you are responsible for that blood. If you have done your best, I can say yes, Allah can forgive you. But if you are relaxed, no; Allah will not forgive you. So it is the same thing now.

“The bloodshed now is more than during Jonathan’s regime. So now you judge yourselves to be fair. Our religion is a religion of fairness.

“Now more blood is shed from negligence, from sleeping, from laziness, from I-dont-care.

“If I am true to myself, as I called for the resignation of Jonathan, I should call for the resignation of President Buhari, and with immediate effect! And government paper should carry it also, if there is truth,” he stressed.

Gumi, in closing of Ramadan lecture for 2018, at Shaikh Sanusi Khalil Mosque at Rigachikun, Kaduna today, said: “Buhari is full of mistakes. Full of mistakes! He is a human being like anybody. And I swear to God that there are many people here in the North that can perform better than him.”