My dear citizens,
\nI am very grateful to God and to all Nigerians for their prayers. I am pleased to be back on home soil among my brothers and sisters.
\n2. \u00a0 \u00a0 In the course of my stay in the United Kingdom, I have been kept in daily touch with events at home. Nigerians are robust and lively in discussing their affairs, but I was distressed to notice that some of the comments, especially in the social media, have crossed our national red lines by daring to question our collective existence as a nation. This is a step too far.
\n3. \u00a0 \u00a0 In 2003 after I joined partisan politics, the late Chief Emeka Ojukwu came and stayed as my guest in my hometown, Daura. Over two days we discussed in great depth till late into the night and analyzed the problems of Nigeria. We both came to the conclusion that the country must remain one and united.
\n4. \u00a0 \u00a0 Nigeria’s unity is settled and not negotiable. We shall not allow irresponsible elements to start trouble and when things get bad they run away and saddle others with the responsibility of bringing back order, if necessary with their blood.
\n5. \u00a0 \u00a0 Every Nigerian has the right to live and pursue his business anywhere in Nigeria without let or hindrance.
\n6. \u00a0 \u00a0I believe the very vast majority of Nigerians share this view.
\n7. \u00a0 \u00a0 This is not to deny that there are legitimate concerns. Every group has a grievance. But the beauty and attraction of a federation is that it allows different groups to air their grievances and work out a mode of co-existence.
\n8. \u00a0 \u00a0 The National Assembly and the National Council of State are the legitimate and appropriate bodies for national discourse.
\n9. \u00a0 \u00a0 The national consensus is that, it is better to live together than to live apart.
\n10. \u00a0 Furthermore, I am charging the Security Agencies not to let the successes achieved in the last 18 months be a sign to relax.
\n11. \u00a0 \u00a0 Terrorists and criminals must be fought and destroyed relentlessly so that the majority of us can live in peace and safety.
\n12. \u00a0 \u00a0 Therefore we are going to reinforce and reinvigorate the fight not only against;
\n\u00b7 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 elements of Boko Haram which are attempting a new series of attacks on soft targets
\n\u00b7 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 kidnappings, farmers versus herdsmen clashes,
\n\u00b7 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 in addition to ethnic violence fuelled by political mischief makers. We shall tackle them all.
\n13. \u00a0 Finally, dear Nigerians, our collective interest now is to eschew petty differences and come together to face common challenges of;
\n\u00b7 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 economic security,
\n\u00b7 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 political evolution and integration
\n\u00b7 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 as well as lasting peace among all Nigerians.
\n14. \u00a0 \u00a0 I remain resolutely committed to ensuring that these goals are achieved and maintained. I am so glad to be home.
\n15. \u00a0 \u00a0Thank you and may God bless our dear Nation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My dear citizens, I am very grateful to God and to all Nigerians for their prayers. I am pleased to be back on home soil among my brothers and sisters. 2. \u00a0 \u00a0 In the course of my stay in the United Kingdom, I have been kept in daily touch with events at home. Nigerians […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":4573,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5777],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-features"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4572\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}