CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR MESSAGE TO THE NATION

I greet you all in this happy season of the Christmas and New Year Celebrations.

Christmas is for Christians in all the nations of the world, a time for the renewal of their faith in the cornerstone of their religion - Christ the Lord's redemption of mankind by coming to earth, assuming human nature and offering himself as a divine sacrifice for the eternal redemption of our sins.

Traditionally, this period of every year is mostly given over to holidays, festivities and merriment, but individuals and nations often turn their minds, at this time also, to a degree of introspection on their lives and to taking stock of their achievements and failings in the outgoing year, as well as articulating their hopes and aspirations for the coming year.

For us all in Nigeria, the year 2005 has undoubtedly been one of many happy and positive developments. We have certainly had a lot to thank
God Almighty for in the past year despite the tragic incidents in recent months that have given us cause to mourn and grieve as a nation.

With the continued support and determination of the vast majority of our patriotic compatriots to stay the course, this Administration has made commendable progress in the past year in the implementation of reforms that will provide a solid foundation for national growth and prosperity.

In the course of the year, we achieved a historic breakthrough in our long-running effort to shake off the national burden of a most debilitating debt overhang that has hindered our ability to provide the basic needs of our people in several areas.

We also made significant progress in other areas such as agricultural development, the consolidation of our banking sector, the rehabilitation of our health care facilities, power supply, water supply, roads rehabilitation and construction, the privatization of inefficient public enterprises and the extermination of rampant corruption in our public life.

I would like to seize this opportunity to express our heartfelt appreciation of the steadfast support of our people for this Administration's agenda for national reform. The significant progress we have made thus far has only been possible because of your commendable perseverance and abiding faith in the rightness of our programmes and policies.

We shall continue to count on your goodwill, support and cooperation in the coming year as we strive to consolidate on the gains of 2005 and tackle fresh challenges in our beloved nation's march towards rejuvenation, reconstruction and renaissance.

As we move forward into the New Year, let us collectively rededicate ourselves to the complete and total implementation of the national reforms we have embarked upon for the benefit of all of our people.

We must not allow ourselves to be deterred from our goal of a just, fair and prosperous nation by the enemies of progress in our midst, who, having had their selfish and corrupt ways of easy living on the collectively wealth of our people thwarted by this Administration, are now ganging up in condemnable alliances whose sole intention is to return the nation to the evil days from which we are just emerging.

This Administration remains ever concerned for the welfare and well¬being of Nigerians. We shall therefore continue to do everything possible to ameliorate their hardships and ensure that the funds available to the three tiers of government in the country are efficiently deployed to meet the basic needs of all instead of being corruptly diverted to the bottomless accounts of a greedy and selfish elite.

Christmas commemorates the birth of Christ the Saviour and the dominant themes of His mission on earth were selfless service and sacrifice for the good of all.

As we celebrate his birth and the New Year therefore, we all, Christians and non-Christians alike, will do well to reflect on the universal applications of these ennobling themes of the teachings of Jesus and strive harder to make them more manifest in our contributions to the lives of our communities and nation.
I wish you all happy Christmas and New Year celebrations.