President Jonathan today at the inter-denominational church service held at the National Ecumenical Centre, Abuja, to mark Nigeria's 54th Independence Anniversary coming up on Wednesday, has said Nigeria would have defeated terrorism if only we unite against it, like we did on Ebola.
According to him, Nigerians united against the virus irrespective of political persuasion, religion or ethnic origin and that was why we were able to defeat it fast.
"Take the case of Ebola for example; this is a good example all Nigerians must learn from.
"When Patrick Sawyer brought Ebola to Nigeria, it was in Lagos that this incidence happened and in terms of politics, Lagos is an opposition party state but the central government is the ruling party.
"From Lagos Ebola moved to Rivers State, also opposition party state.
"But because all Nigerians fought Ebola irrespective of political persuasion, irrespective of religion, irrespective of ethnicity, as individuals we defeated the disease,'' he said.
The president also commended the military for their victories thus far, and openly frowned against some inflammatory statements and utterances of some politicians towards terrorism.
"We will not require people to come from heaven or other countries to solve our problems. What we require from our brothers and sisters is to encourage our military because it is not easy.
"When people are sleeping in their houses at night, they are busy fighting. Bullets are not badminton rackets or something.
"When I listen to some statements made by some people who call themselves leaders, I feel sad for the country.
"We must believe that we do not have any other country outside of Nigeria,'' he said.
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.... The Forbidden Fruits After that day, the boys never went to the orange tree again and the story that it was a forbidden fruit was retold and everyone believed it, even the four boys. Though they knew it was not the forbidden fruits of the Bible but Mr. Jacob's forbidden fruits. Garba was angry when he learnt that it was Bawa who had told on him. They all began to avoid Bawa. But all these had been over thirty-five years ago. They grown and become men. Garba had turned out to be the star of them all, having excelled in school and had gone to Lagos and then to England. He returned to Dongongari and settled down. Now all the boys who went to the St. Aquinas now have children. But they all still sit together on weekends and talk of the past. Mr. Jacob and the forbidden fruits was always an exciting topic and they would laugh. "Only God know where the white master is today," Sule would say with nostalgia. "Perhaps long dead and buried," Tanko would say. "But he was a terror," Bawa reminded. He had succeeded. his father as the tobacco merchant in ,Jogongan even though he was once a banker. Garba would laugh. "Come to think of it, he was a good man. The lesson of the forbidden fruits was that of obedience. We ought to have obeyed him as our elder and teacher," he said: They all agreed with him. The End .... TO BE CONTINUED TOMORROW...JOIN US TOMORROW FOR MORE ON THIS FUNNY AND EXCITING STORY }}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}
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