71st birthday: Tinubu cancels colloquium, urges special prayers, thanksgiving

The President-elect, Bola Tinubu, has directed that special prayers and thanksgiving service be held on Wednesday March 29, 2023, to mark his 71st birthday instead of the yearly birthday colloquium.

Tinubu, in a statement issued on Monday by his media aide, Tunde Rahman, said the special prayers will be held in Lagos and other parts of the country.

Rahman noted that the Lagos special prayers will be held at the Central Mosque in each of the five divisions in the state, including the Central Mosque, Alausa, Ikeja.

He stated that special prayers will be offered for the peace, unity, and progress of Nigeria during the prayer sessions.

Rahman quoted the President-elect as saying that the date, which falls within the holy month of Ramadan, should be dedicated to prayers and seeking God’s guidance for him and the country before he assumes office on May 29.

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Also to receive prayers among others are President Muhammadu Buhari and First Lady Aisha Buhari; Tinubu, and his wife, Senator Oluremi Tinubu; Vice President-elect, Sen. Kashim Shettima and his wife, Nana Shettima; Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, other state governors as well as members of National and State Houses of Assembly.

According to an announcement by the organisers of the prayer sessions issued by Imam Akeem Kosoko, the session at Alausa Central Mosque will hold on Wednesday, including the delivery of sermons and reading from the Holy Quran.

This year will be the third in recent times the birthday colloquium will not hold in the country.

In 2020, the 12th edition of the colloquium marking Tinubu’s 68th birthday was put off to empathise with those who lost their lives or affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2022, the birthday symposium was also called off by Tinubu at the venue of the event when news emerged of the terror attack on the Abuja-Kaduna train in which several persons died and many others abducted.

The former two-term governor of Lagos State had said it would not be proper for him as a statesman to be celebrating when such a tragedy had befallen the nation.

“For me to be here celebrating, dancing and enjoying myself, does not speak of me as a senior citizen of this country. I asked that the cleric should rather engage in prayers. This event should not be holding,” Tinubu had said.

The Star