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Oshiomhole’s New Year Message: We must not
surrender to fear Posted Sat
Dec 31,2011
Oshiomhole
As we celebrate the dawn of a New Year, I
extend my best wishes to the people of Edo State and Nigeria.The
Year 2011 was challenging for us in Edo State and Nigeria. In
Edo State, we have collectively attained greater heights in our
efforts to improve the quality of life and to lay the
infrastructural foundations for enhanced human development,
general public welfare and the pursuit of economic prosperity by
our people. We have cause to be grateful to God that under His
guidance, we have built on our collective strengths and enhanced
our resolve to deal with our challenges.
In the Year 2012, we can confidently look
forward to a brighter future, because we have all the
ingredients that engender socio-economic and political progress;
namely, an enterprising people and a government that works.
For our beloved country, the times are
certainly hard across all spheres of governance. In particular,
the deficits in the security of lives and property and the
management of our diversity have attained levels that give
renewed cause for grave anxiety. At this juncture, the Nigerian
nation, not one particular religion or ethnic group, is under
attack. We must respond as Nigerians and rise as a people to
face the challenge, united by a common resolve to defend our
collective security and the integrity of the polity.
I believe strongly that Nigeria is all that
we have and we have a duty to make it work. I urge that we
continue to extend support to Mr President in his efforts to
respond to the multifaceted problems he inherited.
Many nations have passed through the
dangers and travails unleashed by secular and sectarian
violence. Certainly, several are going through such difficulties
even now. Solutions come by dint of faith in God; conscious
efforts to nurture unity and consensus, as well as a firm
resolve to defend the integrity of the polity.
Therefore, we must not surrender to fear,
mutual hatred or a desperation to repartition the polity.
At this point, our thoughts go out
particularly to those who lost their loved ones in the recent
violent attacks on innocent Nigerians. While we share in their
grief, we cannot afford to give up the common Pan-Nigeria
aspiration of the vast majority of our people.
We in Edo State re-affirm our unflinching
support to President Goodluck Jonathan as he leads the nation to
find the right mix of solutions to the multifaceted problems and
seek to put the nation on a sound development footing.
I assure Edo people that everything will be
done to apply the machinery of the state to make life better for
us and our children.
I wish Mr President and all Nigerians a
happy and fulfilling 2012, with a prayer that God should bless
our efforts to fix Nigeria.
Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole, mni
Governor, Edo State
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