President Muhammadu Buhari on Sunday in Abuja advised Muslims to use the holy month of Ramadan as a great opportunity for seeking forgiveness and getting closer to Allah through worship and good deeds.
The President, who was speaking through his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, gave the advice in his message to mark the beginning of the Ramadan fasting period.
According to the President, the month of Ramadan is a time of spiritual reawakening which demands not only abstention from food and drinks, but also all wrongdoing in their lives.
Buhari frowned at the exploitative attitudes of some traders, saying: “I’m always disturbed when people seek to make brisk profits by hiking food prices as soon as the month of Ramadan starts.”
He, therefore, called on Muslim traders, businessmen and women, civil servants and political office holders to use the month of Ramadan to seek forgiveness of God by abandoning wrong practices for personal gains at the expense of others.
According to him, a religion should serve as a moral restraint from bad practices, regretting that those stealing national resources are merely paying lip service to religion.
He advised that anybody holding position of trust should primarily remember that they would be accountable one day either on earth or the hereafter.
Buhari said the government was working towards bringing relief to the people through palliative measures and faithful implementation of the 2016 national budget.
The President stated that no elected government would intentionally want you to make life difficult for the people that gave it the mandate to serve.
Also, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State has urged Muslims to pray fervently for the country to overcome its current challenges as they observe the holy month of Ramadan.
Ambode made the call at a pre-Ramadan lecture held in Ikeja on Sunday.
Ambode, who was represented by his Deputy, Dr. Idiat Adebule, said Ramadan was a period of sober reflection, which offered Muslims ample opportunity to be united and pursue a common cause.
He said peaceful coexistence of Nigerians was a pre-requisite to any step the country might want to take to tackle all the socio-economic challenges presently facing it.
Ambode congratulated Muslims and urged them to imbibe the lessons inherent in the blessed month.
He charged Muslims in the state to continue to live peacefully with other non-Muslim residents as mandated by the teachings of the Holy Qur’an.
The governor explained that Ramadan was about piety and frequent remembrance of Allah, where the rich and the poor would have to fast irrespective of their financial status as long they were healthy.
He urged Muslims to pray fervently for themselves, Lagos State and the nation at large.
The state’s Commissioner for Home Affairs, Dr. Abdul-Hakeem Abdul-Lateef, urged Muslims and non-Muslims to be patient about the current challenges in the country and to intensify prayers.
According to Abdul-Lateef, Ramadan is about endurance and sacrifice, where everyone will have to abstain from eating, drinking, smoking, sexual relationship from dawn to sunset in the service of Allah.
He added that the pre-Ramadan lecture was to usher in the blessed month but not meant to declare the commencement of the fasting month.
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