IBB releases New Year message, speaks on Nigeria's future

macfranc007 December 31, 2017 Nigeria News today & Breaking news ▷ Read Nigerian newspapers 24/7 Nnenna Ibeh

- A former military head of state has called Nigerians to work together in preserving the nation's unity

- Ibrahim Babangida said the future of Nigeria is bright

- He said the new year brings new inspiration that would help give support to each other and as well ensure the believe that all individuals are great in the nations diversity

A former military head of state, Ibrahim Babangida has said that the future of Nigeria is bright.

Babangida in his New Year's message to Nigerians said the nation can achieve more than what it has achieved in the past years in the new year.

Congratulating all Nigerians, the former head of state urged for the renewal of citizens' commitment to a collective growth and development of the Nigerian nation by contributing more to nation building.

Babangida said: "I have the hope that the nation we so sacrifice to keep going and to this age can only be better notwithstanding various security and economic challenges that has become a world order ; confronting every country of the world in different magnitude and in different way.

As Nigerians our unique strengths and characters to overcome our challenges collectively have never been in doubt, what we need now more than ever is to galvanize these unique qualities for the good of all as permissible under a democratic set up," Babangida said.

He called on all Nigerians to imbibe the core values of democracy by respecting each other’s rights and pursue individual goals in tandem with the country's objectives for a better Nigeria.

Babangida said the new season offers Nigerians a new inspiration to give support to each other and as well believe that all individuals are great in the nations diversity.

"Rather than allowing our diversity to divide us , we should gain courage by looking at the opportunities offer by our diversity and the good aspects of it that make us special people as Nigerians.

Believe me when I say from my experience as a military officer who fought to keep Nigeria one; that we have had difficult times to be where we are today and we will not wish our children , grand children and great grand children to witness war again we have made the sacrifice for them.

This does not however mean that we will not be confronted with challenges, challenges are part of life, but if we are to be prepared for it, we must first shed our fear of it.

I say to you compatriots today and truthfully that I am unafraid to be optimistic that the future of Nigeria is bright.

We are without doubt people with a great past but not without challenges and for the future we will be greater yet with challenges but we have paid our dues for Nigeria, to the extent that we are hopeful that the challenges of the future will not be greater than what we faced in the past

I urge all of us to take the inspiration offer us by this new year to build Nigeria of our dream, devoid of divisive tendencies and offer government at all levels our support, bearing in mind that as humans we are fallible, perfection is a Godly attribute, no matter how we try we can never be perfect

So as we enter the new year we must learn to understand and forgive our honest mistakes, because there is no person who has not made mistakes and has the guarantee not to make any in his or her life, with that divine purposes of being capable of making mistakes we should be able to reason with our leaders, decipher the complexity of our diversity and move on as one great nation we all desire," he concluded.

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NAIJ.com earlier reported that another head of state, Yakubu Gowon had disclosed why he did not make Jos Nigeria’s capital.

Gowon said he did not make the choice because he thought that he would have been accused of favoritism.

He, however, said he was the brain behind putting Nigeria’s federal capital in Abuja.

Do you prefer a restructuring of Nigeria or should we just split-up? - on NAIJ.com TV