We join millions of Nigerians to felicitate with Muslims on the occasion of this year’s Eid-el-Fitri festival, marking the end of the Ramadan fast. The annual 30-day fast is always a call to abstinence, discipline, and devotion. It aims to bring out the best in all true Muslims as they strive to regulate their lives in accordance with their faith. They place limits on their conduct, on the things they eat, and maintain extra vigilance on actions that might be deleterious to the faith.
We urge the faithful to maintain the Eid-el-Fitri spirit which includes loving their neighbours and living in peace with them. It also means demonstrating discipline in all their public conduct and rectitude and integrity in their personal interaction with other people. These virtues are expected to last beyond the festivals. Indeed, the idea of a new and righteous life is that the Ramadan offers every faithful a new beginning, and an opportunity to change for the better and turn a new leaf in the service to Allah, the Nigerian nation and humanity.
This is also the period to think and pray and offer service to others. This is particularly important at a time like this when there is so much insecurity in the land, and there is a tendency to selfishness and self-absorption. We must understand that service is the essence of public service and that the essence of being in politics is service to people.
We also need to pray fervently for peace and harmony between neighbours, and seek inter-faith understanding and cooperation which goes a long way to reduce misunderstanding. We need to pray for our leaders. Their actions tend to impact the lives of many more of our citizens. We should pray that they be guided by wisdom and commitment to public service, justice and fairness which should be bestowed upon even those on opposite political camps in the artificial demarcation we call the political divide.
We may need to remind the faithful of their obligation to demonstrate charity to their fellow citizens, not to be indifferent to the plight of the poor and the deprived, but to remember to ameliorate the plight of fellow citizens, especially the down-trodden and to render succour whenever possible.
This celebration seems to have coincided with a most crucial juncture in our country’s history where there are chances of national reconciliation, national rebirth, and national reorientation. The essence of fasting is to prepare ourselves to come closer to Allah. Our national election cycle will be on us in a few months which requires the utmost wisdom and a high sense of fairness and justice to succeed. Our nation has been in a struggle to reduce the level of corruption in the country, an exercise which demands courage, firmness and a sense of justice. The attempt to redress the injustices of the annulment of the 1993 presidential election has all the prospects of healing the nation of one of its open wounds.
It is not only in the security sector of our national life do we need a great deal of prayers to end the unwarranted bloodshed which daily tarnishes our country, we also need a great deal of wisdom and divine intervention in our economy, to strengthen our national unity, to restore peace in the North East region, and to conduct a peaceful election in the coming months.
We, therefore, urge Nigerians to use this period of festivities and holiday for introspection and sober reflection, hoping that we learn to love one another, lead a life of charity and sacrifice, and build on the sentiments and acts of national reconciliation of the last few days.