Eid el-Kabir: Ekweremadu Urges Prayers for Peaceful 2019 Elections

Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, has called on the Muslims to work and pray towards the peaceful and successful conduct of the 2019 general elections.

In state statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media, Uche Anichukwu, the deputy senate president noted that developments in recent elections in parts of the country were bad omens for 2019 general elections.

Ekweremadu also called on Nigerians to emulate Prophet Ibrahim’s life of total obedience, love, justice, and self-sacrifice, which he described as the hallmarks of Eid-el Kabir.

He made the calls in a goodwill message to the Muslim faithful on the occasion of Eid-el Kabir, observing that only such virtues as exhibited by Prophet Ibrahim could take Nigeria to the Promised Land.

Ekweremadu said: “The Eid-el Kabir presents yet another opportunity for the Muslim Umah and indeed all Nigerians to reflect soberly on the state of the nation and pray for Nigeria’s future and peaceful elections.

“Importantly, Nigeria is certainly in need of both attitudinal change and divine intervention as the country prepares for the 2019 general elections. Whereas the extensive electoral reforms carried out by the National Assembly manifested in visible improvements in the quality of the 2011 and 2015 general elections, subsequent elections have been gravely marred by excessive violence, vote buying, and other outrageous manipulations that threaten our democracy.

“From the Bayelsa Governorship election to the recent bye-elections in Kogi and Rivers States, among others, the nation has witnessed intolerable levels of impunity, violence, excessive abuse and manipulation of vital institutions of democracy, which signal grave turbulence ahead of 2019”.