President Muhammadu Buhari on Sunday in Abuja advised Muslims to use the holy month of Ramadan as a great opportunity for seeking forgiveness and getting closer to Allah through worship and good deeds.
The President, who was speaking through his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, gave the advice in his message to mark the beginning of the Ramadan fasting period.
According to the president, the month of Ramadan is a time of spiritual reawakening which demands not only abstention from food and drinks, but also all wrongdoing in their lives.
The President frowned at the exploitative attitudes of some traders, saying that “I’m always disturbed when people seek to make brisk profits by hiking food prices as soon as the month of Ramadan starts.’’
He, therefore, called on Muslim traders, businessmen and women, civil servants and political office holders to use the month of Ramadan to seek forgiveness of God by abandoning wrong practices for personal gains at the expense of others.
According to him, a religion should serve as a moral restraint from bad practices, regretting that those stealing national resources are merely paying lip service to religion.
He advised that anybody holding position of trust should primarily remember that they would be accountable one day either on earth or the hereafter.
He said the government was working towards bringing relief to the people through palliative measures and faithful implementation of the 2016 national budget.
The president stated that no elected government would intentionally want you to make life difficult for the people that gave it the mandate to serve