Frantic spiritual efforts are being made to ensure President Muhammadu Buhari's re-election bid in 2019.
President Muhammadu Buhari
As 2019 election fever gathers momentum, over 500 pro-Buhari inter-faith clerics, yesterday, gathered at the popular Unity Fountain, Abuja, to continue with the 40 days prayer and fasting they had declared to ensure President Muhammadu Buhari was re-elected next year.
The clerics, comprising Christian and Moslem faithful, who gathered with the protection of several police officers and other security agents, said that irrespective of religious affiliation, their common interest was to get a divine backing for Buhari’s victory.
Apart from the prayer sessions that were led by different clerics from the Christian and Moslem backgrounds, who prayed according to the doctrines of their various faiths, they were also seen hugging each other to promote unity.
One of the clerics, Bishop Sunday Garuba, said that the prayer and fasting had been going on in the last 20 days and shall be sustained and President Buhari will emerge victorious next year.
Garuba said: “It is not by accident that we are all gathered in unity despite our different ethnic and religious faiths. This is, indeed, a testament that God loves Nigeria.
It is also a testament that God is behind President Muhammadu Buhari. It is also a testament that all of the forces of darkness that have converged to take Nigeria back to evil days have also failed,” he said.
The leader of the Muslim clerics, Imam Kamarudeen Salawu, said there was a need for vigilance by adherents of all faiths to shun evil men that come with money to buy their conscience or seeking for prayers.
He said: “Allah Most High has created the heavens and the earth and everything between them, and He is the only owner of everything to be found there, and of everything between them, as well as of everything below the surface of the earth (including the underground resources). Allah, the Almighty says in the Noble Qur’an.
“We know nothing, but what You teach us. You are the All-Knower, the Wise. O Allah, guide us what is good for us, and benefit us from what You taught us, and increase our knowledge. Show us the righteous things as righteous and help us to do them, and show us the wrong things as bad and help us to keep away from them.
“O Allah, our Lord, lead us out from the depths of darkness and illusion, unto the lights of erudition and knowledge, and from the muddy shallows of lusts unto the heavens of Your Vicinity”, he said.