Buhari Begins ‘Prayer And Fasting’ For New Service Chiefs

President Muhammadu Buhari has promised to pray fervently for the new service chiefs to excel in their new roles.

Presidential Spokesman, Femi Adesina, made this known in an article titled: “Inside PMB’s first meeting with new Service Chiefs.” released on Friday.

“American Presidents would usually end their speeches with prayers for their country, and for the military. “God bless our troops, ” Joe Biden had declared during his inauguration last week. And President Buhari equality told the new Service Chiefs: “I will be praying for you. I assure you of that.”

“Yes, the arm of flesh alone will not do it. It is through God that we do valiantly. Victory comes from the divine powers. May our military make conquests, till halcyon days return to every part of our country. And for we the citizens, may we remember to pray for them daily. And also make positive invocations: God bless our troops.

“Let the Amen roarrrrrrrrrr,” Adesina wrote.

Adesina added that President Buhari reminded the new Service Chiefs that the country was literally in a state of emergency, urging them to be loyal, patriotic, and serve the country well.

Buhari had said: “We promised to secure the country, revive the economy, and kill the culture of corruption. None has been easy, but we have certainly made progress. We have done well in the Northeast, and the people themselves can testify. We are working on Northwest, and other challenging parts of the country.

“We encouraged the people to go back to the land, they obeyed, and we have virtually attained food security. If that hadn’t happened, we would have been in great trouble, as there would have been no money to import food, with the crash in oil prices in the international market.”

“This is the highest you can go in the Service. Be patriotic, serve the country well, because your loyalty is to the country,” he added.

Adesina noted that the President also gave the Service Chiefs the benefit of experience, asking them to look into the welfare of their officers and men.

“Ensure they feel professionally and physically secure. In terms of equipment and other logistics, we are doing our best, and will do more. Give officers you can trust command, and support them. Respect seniority and intellectualism, but also use people who can deliver, those who show courage and leadership qualities. I trained in the United Kingdom, India, and United States of America. It was not because my superiors liked my face. They know what they saw in me.

“During the 30 months of our Civil War, I was virtually sentenced to the frontlines. Thank God nothing happened to me, not even a scratch. Competence, loyalty, courage, leadership must be rewarded with promotions,” Adesina quoted Buhari.

The new Service Chiefs are Major General Leo Irabor, Chief of Defence Staff; Major General I. Attahiru, Chief of Army Staff; Rear Admiral AZ Gambo, Chief of Naval Staff; and Air Vice-Marshal IO Amao, Chief of Air Staff.