Members of the National Unity Forum, a non-governmental organization, gathered today at the Unity Fountain in Abuja for intercessory prayers. The group focused its prayers on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the 36 state governors, Prof. Mahmud Yakubu, Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and other leaders.
In a statement by its National Coordinator, Comrade Godwin Meliga, the group said its decision to pray to God was informed by the time-tested efficacy of prayer and guided by scriptural injunctions. The group is composed of both Christians and Muslims and has designated the 25th day of February yearly as its National Intercession Day. It urged all patriotic citizens of Nigeria, regardless of their faith, to consider it a civic obligation to take a few moments on the 25th of February every year to join their hearts in prayers to God for national peace, unity and progress.
After the session of prayers, worship and thanksgiving at the Unity Fountain, the group embarked on a solidarity walk to the Headquarters of INEC in Maitama where they specifically prayed for the Chairman of the Commission, Prof. Yakubu, and the success of all subsequent elections in Nigeria. The group thanked Prof. Yakubu and his team for their strenuous efforts to ensure the success and credibility of the 2023 General Elections.
The group believes that given the tensed state of the national polity before the last general elections, due mainly to socio-ethnic and geopolitical diversities, any attempt by INEC to have delivered a compromised electoral process could have triggered violent upheavals across the country, which may have threatened the very fabrics of our mutual coexistence. Comrade Meliga said, “But the fact that INEC, under Prof. Yakubu, was obviously above board in the discharge of its mandate during the last general elections, helped to a great extent in disarming all those nursing sinister intentions for the country, including all those who may wish to capitalize on the outbreak of widespread electoral violence to achieve their narrow destabilization agenda for Nigeria.”
Furthermore, while other Nigerians may resort to acts of self-denial, civil disobedience and open protests to express their disenchantment with the prevailing socio-economic and political challenges facing Nigeria, the National Unity Forum believes that praying is the best option for the country at the moment.