It has given me great delight to deliver this new year address, one that represents my last as your President and Commander-in-Chief of our Armed Forces. Following the recent global celebration of the birthday of Jesus Christ the year 2023 will dawn on us in the next intervening hours from now. How time flies!
I shall be brief but blunt and brutally frank in this intervention, a special end of the year message. Allah has been very kind to me (especially now that he has restored my health!). At 80 and still kicking strong I cannot but be grateful to Allah.
In the last seven and half years I took the mantle of leadership as the duly-elected President. I still remember the popular celebrations on the streets in our major cities as the then ruling party, the PDP, lost the presidential poll. But above all, the grace and patriotism with which the then incumbent and statesman, Goodluck Jonathan, accepted his defeat without any demonstration of rancour or grudges. We salute his patriotism, statesmanship and democratic belief.
The general elections in our country are scheduled to be held next February. The presidential poll is going to produce my successor who will be sworn-in next year’s May 29th. The processes leading to this majestic democratic tradition are on course. And now the electioneering campaigns toward the general elections are still on. Candidates are criss-crossing the lengths and breadth of our vast great country campaigning for your votes.
Honourably and responsibly I would be bowing out gracefully leaving Aso Villa for my modest house in Daura. Unlike my predecessors I have not found it expedient using state funds to build breathtaking edifice for myself. I look forward to taking my deserved retirement next year. I miss my cows and they miss me in turn!
About 18 candidates are vying strongly for the highest office in the land. Our party, the APC, are participating actively in the said elections. Our candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is poised to win the presidential poll thereby replacing me on this executive seat.
As I said before, I would leave Nigeria better than when I met her. Long after our departure from the scene Nigerians would remember our efforts at national salvation.
My ‘brother’, Atiku Abubakar of the opposition PDP is having his last shot at the presidency. Like me in the past he had been gunning repeatedly for the office and coming short of the big prize. We wish him luck this time around even though the statistics and exit polls indicate clearly that Asiwaju BAT will trump the opposition!
The PDP, the party through which Atiku is vying for the powerful office, is divided down the middle. The centre can no longer hold; the falcon no longer dances to the tune of the falconer! Politics in Nigeria can be sweet and bitter at the same time. The rebel group, the so-called Integrity Group of five renegade Governors, have thrown the chances of the party under the bus! They are presently in London seeking a way to harm Atiku electorally!
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