Nigerian leaders have expressed hope that 2023 will be a better year and have urged Nigerians to remain confident as the country prepares for a general election.
President Muhammadu Buhari reassured Nigerians that their collective will and votes in the 2023 general elections would be fulfilled under his watch.
The president gave the assurance Saturday in his administration’s last New Year message released by his media aide, Malam Garba Shehu, in Abuja.
According to him, “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 commitment and executive promise to see to the letter that the 2023 elections, being diligently conducted by INEC, will be free and fair.
In his new year message, former President Dr Goodluck Jonathan has urged Nigerians to put the nation first as they explore opportunities that lie before them in the new year, including voting for candidates of their choice in the forthcoming 2023 elections.
Dr Jonathan stated that the new year holds great possibilities despite the challenges faced by the nation in previous years.
“As a people, we survived the horror of the flood amid other national challenges and lived with hope unto God and faith in our nation. We must see the election as an opportunity to birth a new country and overcome the challenges of the past years. Let us put the nation’s interest first in all our conduct this new year”, he said.
On his part, Atiku Abubakar, the Presidential Candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, congratulated Nigerians on living through 2022 and crossing over to 2023.
In a statement by his Spokesperson, Senator Dino Melaye, Atiku urged Nigerians to embrace faith and eliminate fear as they welcome the New year.
He said, “Good enough; the year 2023 offers all Nigerians the golden opportunity to choose a leader that can navigate through the storm and bail out our dear country from its woes.
“Our dear country experienced significant progress between 1999 and 2015; though the debt profile was high, the attitude exhibited and the economic policies implemented by the administration in which Atiku Abubakar served encouraged Nigeria’s creditors to write off its debt and offer the nation a new lease of life.
Sadly, we are thrown back into the debt dilemma today, but these problems are not beyond solutions. Nigeria will prosper again under the leadership of Atiku Abubakar, by the grace of God and by the good support of the good people of Nigeria.”
Also, Nigeria’s main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), says it celebrates with Nigerians on the occasion of the New year, urging them to reinforce their resolve for a better country.
In a statement by Debo Ologunagba, National Publicity Secretary, the PDP charged Nigerians to ensure that they are not distracted by certain selfish individuals and groups. The party said, “The new year presents an opportunity to strengthen our bond of unity as a people, resist all divisive voices, and pursue a new beginning, away from the woes, economic hardship, killings, and endless life-discounting experiences of the calamitous years of the rudderless, cruel and massively corrupt All Progressives Congress (APC).
“The year 2023 comes to our nation as a light at the end of the dark tunnel as Nigerians march to the polls with renewed vigour to expel the reckless and anti-people APC and elect a people-oriented leadership that truly cares as embodied in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and our Presidential Candidate, Atiku Abubakar.”
