Former military president of Nigeria, Gen.Ibrahim Babangida, has sent a message of congratulations to President Muhammadu Buhari on his reelection for a fresh term of four years.

In a long message that dredged some of the issues that triggered some disagreement between the two leaders last year, Babangida asked Buhari not only to heal wounds from the election, but also to restructure the country and introduce ‘creative measures’ to tackle the economy.

The former military leader called restructuring agitators, ‘reasonable Nigerians”.

“The President may wish to heed to the yearnings of reasonable Nigerians for restructuring and seek all constitutional means to devolve some powers presently exercised by the Federal Government to the other tiers of government”, he said.

Babangida also asked Buhari to heal the wounds arising from the electioneering campaign and the outcome.

”The newly elected president should heal the wounds of the heated campaign exchanges by embracing those who contested alongside with him.

” The President must resist the temptation to see them as enemies; not even opponents, but fellow compatriots who merely disagreed with him on how best to move our country forward.

He also reserved special praises for Atiku Abubakar, Buhari’s main challenger, decorating him with several adjectives, such as being ‘dogged, gallant, audacious” and his electoral support cutting across ethnic “ethnic, religious and regional lines”.

However, Atiku’s winning votes across all lines of divide was not peculiar as Buhari even outperformed him, winning at least 25 per cent in 34 states and FCT and outrightly winning 19 of the 36 states.

Atiku led in the traditional PDP states of South South and South East but struggled to win his home state of Adamawa. He also won narrowly in Ondo, Oyo, Benue, Plateau, Taraba states. He trailed Buhari in most of the North West and North East states, and failed to make 25 per cent cut in Kano, Kebbi, Zamfara, Borno, Katsina, and Yobe. He also lost to Buhari in Lagos, Ogun, Osun, Kwara, Nasarawa, Kwara, Ekiti, Kogi, Gombe, Kaduna, Niger, Sokoto, Jigawa and Kaduna. (NAN)

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