Former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, has sent a message to President Bola Tinubu as the nation celebrates the new year.
He warned the Tinubu-led administration to show a clear direction for its policy projections and desist from the subsisting behaviour of groping in the dark in 2024.
His warning came on the heels of a comment on New Year by the apex body for Christians in Nigeria, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) that Nigerians only survived in the outgone year, 2023, by God’s grace.
Atiku lamented the current intensity of the trying times many families and businesses are going through, adding that a completely different pathway could have been taken had the government been smarter with their policy prescriptions.
In his 2024 New Year Message, the former presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said time and season were created to take stock of realities and effect necessary amends.
While he expressed gratitude to God and welcomed Nigerians to the new year, Atiku, admitting that the past year was challenging, said lessons learnt are what should prepare Nigerians for the future.
He said, “The rising cost of food items, goods and services, the malfunction in our national economy and the degenerating state of our national and community security are all existential challenges that we have to face squarely in the New Year.
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“While many companies have closed their operations in Nigeria and moved their enterprise elsewhere with clearer policies and visions, the situation of life for Nigerians keeps getting direr.
“To walk back from these throes of adversities will require a well-thought vision of National Planning that will deliberately make the common people of Nigeria the centrepiece of our development.
“The Year 2024 is still new on its canvas; and so, there is ample time for the current government to champion a pathway to addressing the acute hardship that Nigerians are going through.
“The government must show a clear direction of its policy projections and desist from the subsisting behaviour of groping in the dark.
“While I congratulate all Nigerians for witnessing this New Year, I also wish to call on everyone to double our efforts to put our respective families and businesses in good shape,” he said.
Meanwhile, CAN has said that going by the level of insecurity in the country, “it is only by the grace of God that we have been preserved, overcoming the trials and tribulations of the past year.”
The Christian body, in a statement signed by Archbishop Daniel Okoh, its president, expressed shock over the Christmas Eve attacks on communities in Plateau by terrorists.
The statement added, “These acts of aggression against innocent lives are a stark reminder of the fragility of peace in our beloved country.
“It is a recurrent nightmare that we have witnessed far too often.
“In light of these distressing events, our prayers intensify for the souls we have lost and for the bereaved families.
“We pray earnestly to the Almighty God that such senseless loss of life and wanton destruction of property will never plague our communities again. May He guide us towards pathways of peace and grant solace to all who have suffered.
“In the face of these adversities, it is imperative that we, as a people, refuse to be discouraged. Instead, we must come together and remain resolute in our commitment to build a united, peaceful, and prosperous nation.
“It is in our togetherness that we find the strength to withstand the trials that beset us. In unity, there is hope, resilience, and the power to rebuild. Let us embrace our diversity and allow it to be the bedrock upon which we build a stronger, more harmonious nation.
“As we look to the year ahead, let us do so with a renewed sense of purpose and an unwavering commitment to fostering a better future for our beloved Nigeria.
“Let us draw strength from our faith, our shared values, and our collective resolve to surmount the obstacles that confront us. Together, as one united people, we are capable of creating a Nigeria where peace, justice, and prosperity are not just ideals, but realities for all.
“May the transformative era that has begun continue to unfold for our nation in the year 2024. Let us march forward with hope and determination, and may God’s blessings be upon Nigeria.”
