By Don Silas After visiting the Kigali Genocide Memorial in Rwanda on Thursday, President Muhammadu Buhari made a passionate appeal to N...
By Don Silas
After visiting the Kigali Genocide Memorial in Rwanda on
Thursday, President Muhammadu Buhari made a passionate appeal to Nigerians to
be tolerant of one another and embrace peace.
The President toured the permanent exhibitions at the
Memorial and laid a wreath at the mass graves where more than 250,000 victims
of genocide were buried.
He also paid tribute to the memory of the victims and prayed
for healing for the survivors.
This was disclosed in a statement by Femi Adesina, Special
Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity.
After the visit, the President told journalists that the
lessons from his visit were the need for Nigerians to continue to be tolerant
of one another and for the nation to also preserve its own historical
antecedents from the Nigeria Civil War (1967-1970).
‘‘I went through all the experiences from 15 January 1966 to
date. I was a Governor, Minister, and Head of State and went through detention.
I returned to partisan politics and will finish my two terms as
constitutionally allowed.
‘‘We fought a 30-month bitter civil war and we killed about
a million of each other. Nigeria went through this kind of terrible development
process,’’ he said.
Before departing, the President also wrote in the visitors’
book:
‘‘Remembering the victims of this dark history of the Rwanda
Genocide, we pray that humanity will never experience this kind of hatred,
wickedness and violence toward others because of their ethnic background,
religion and beliefs.
‘‘Nigeria is strongly committed to the prevention of mass
atrocity anywhere in the world and believes that perpetrators of such crimes;
and their enablers, anywhere in the world must be held accountable.’’
President Buhari is in Kigali, Rwanda, to participate in the
26th Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).
He will hold bilateral talks with the President of Rwanda,
Paul Kagame and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Boris Johnson, on
Thursday and attend the official opening of CHOGM on Friday, followed by
high-level meetings of Heads of State and Government.
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