President Muhammadu Buhari was literally mobbed by an excited crowd at the Eid-el-Fitri prayer ground in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city on Friday, where he had gone to attend the prayer marking the end of the Ramadan season.
The entry of the president, who even before his election as president, had some form of cult following in the North, had immediate electrifying effects.
The clips of the rowdy situation which the president’s security details struggled to control was shown in national televisions.
The crowd surged in where ecstasy immediately after the prayers as they sought to behold their loved president, who many of them iare seeing for the first since he was inaugurated as the president of Nigeria.
Some wanted to touch. For some, it was to behold him. Many others wanted to take camera pictures of him. Many also brought out phones to take photographs and record the scene with the president’s security attachés working frantically to protect the President.
Although security agents had wanted the President to get into his car through the ADC’s side so that he would be spirited away, he declined insisting that it is only God who protects even in the midst of security officials.
Buhari, while speaking on what transpired at the prayer ground said that he only God to thank that nothing untoward evolved out the rowdy affair.
He told the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, who led top government officials on the visit to the President to felicitate with him, that it is only God that protects leaders.
According to the President, “Today, during and immediately after the prayers, I think I was bombarded by the youths who almost overwhelmed the security and I had to hold tight to my agbada to get to my car.
“I was advised to enter the car from the ADC’s side and I refused. I went across trying to wave my hand to the wild youths who wanted to see me.
“On an occasion like this, it shows that after what happened to President Ronald Reagan of the USA, it is only God Almighty that protects leaders because in a mob like this, anybody with a sharp knife can get access and do a lot of damage.
“So, all the policemen that were deployed and soldiers since six o’ clock in the morning, before I came out two hours later in the rains, cannot protect you. Only God protects. I hope God will continue to protect us.”
The president also thanked the delegation for the love shown him by their visit and commended them for their support.
“I thank you most sincerely for fulfilling the tradition of greetings for whoever occupies this place,” he said.
“I thank you very much for your loyalty to the country, as represented by our institutions and to the system.”
Vice President Osinbajo had thanked Buhari for showing the mark of true leadership and providing the environment for peaceful coexistence in the country.
Osinbajo said that Nigeria is a country with a great potentials, urging that everybody “should contribute his quota to its development.
“All of us will enjoy this nation. Even our children and grandchildren will enjoy the good of the land,” he said.
