President Muhammadu Buhari has urged Nigerians to look at 2023 with hope in his last New Year message to Nigerians.Buhari, who completes his second term in office in May 2023, said that the New Year would move the nation forward towards unity, progress, and prosperity.
“As we celebrate the opportunity to be alive in the year 2023, we must also acknowledge the passing away of our brothers and sisters who didn’t make it into this New Year. May their souls rest in perfect peace.
“This year is particularly important to me because this message is in essence valedictory. After having the honour of serving you, my compatriots, for the last seven plus years, my tenure as your President in the most revered tradition of our ongoing and maturing democracy must necessarily come to an end. In the next five months we would have gone to the polls and elected a new president along with new governors and a plethora of other elected officials at both the national and state levels.
“All these electoral and democratic principles are working in concert because of the transcendent beliefs, beyond partisan politics, of you the great citizen of Nigeria. In addition is my personal commitment and executive promise to see to the letter that the 2023 elections being diligently conducted by INEC will be free and fair. The collective electoral will and votes of Nigerians will be fulfilled, even in the twilight moments of my watch.
“Reflecting on year 2022 allows us as a government to examine our legacies of successes and challenges.
As we celebrate our wins and review obstacles, we all must understand that governance is a continuum, which still places a transitional responsibility on this administration to provide for the incoming government a non-partisan and objective roadmap for 2023.
“We as Nigeria; one country united under the will of God and actively growing as an indivisible entity, have been enabled year after year, decade after decade, to weather all stormy waters and emerge stronger and better where others have fallen and disintegrated. This has made us a unique nation across the globe and our continent,” he said.
According to him, the year 2023 would, indeed, be a time when the government would work to solidify on delivering key strategic priorities under its Security, Economy and Anti-Corruption Agenda.
Buhari concluded by saying that he did his best to serve the country since he assumed office on May 29, 2015, and prayed that the next President would pick up the baton and continue the race to make Nigeria one of the leading countries of the world.
