I ask for forgiveness from those we have offended – Pres. Jonathan

While delivering his valedictory speech at the special
thanksgiving and farewell service organized by Aso Villa Chapel
yesterday May 17th, President Jonathan asked for forgiveness
from those who might have felt offended by any of the moves
his government made, stating that such moves were not
intended to deliberately hurt anyone. He said no human
institution is ever perfect. He urged everyone to pursue work
towards a better Nigeria even as they leave government
positions.
“No system is perfect. Every human system must have an
element of imperfection. For the period of eight years that
we have been here. I will take the period as a block because
my transition from VP to President was gradual and
complicated. It was intertwined so you cannot actually draw
the line. Because when the President was challenged within
major health issues, I was running the country for
sometimes even before the doctrine of necessity made me as
acting president. Then I took over at first and conducting
the 2011 election I won and I had to run my full four years
as an elected president. So for the eight that one has been
there, definitely one is not perfect. We have certainly done
things that probably we wouldn’t have done that way, but
we didn’t do things deliberately. So for those who we have
offended it was not deliberate, it was circumstances of the
office. So we also plead that those people should forgive, we
think we have done our best. You can do your best and your
friends may misunderstand you. Today we are talking about
leaving, it is only God that knows why things go the way they
do.We came in as Vice President and my wife, today we are
leaving as the former president and former First Lady. We
have achieved it through you. Let me specifically thank the
chaplain, the clergymen, the pastors and their wives. For
the past eight years we have every reason to be thankful to
God. Every individual has his/her own calling. I also believe
that people who take over political leadership have their own
callings to do specific things. No one, head of a government,
be it at the national level or the sub- regional levels can do
every thing. But when you leave, you will want to do
something to show that yes I was here. The chaplain has said
that nothing is perfect, if you wait for perfection, you
cannot achieve anything. Ordinarily 24th of May would haven
been the last Service here. But that 24th, we will all go to
the National Christian Centre for the inauguration service.
So for me and my wife, this is our last day of worship here.
Though we are leaving as president and First Lady, but we
have not left you, because we are still in this country, we
will continue to interact one way or the other, probably
along the line we may even come closer. I believe some of you
may even come closer, and even do more meaningful things
together when we leave office. I don’t really believe that it
is only in government that you can do thing, even outside
government you do a lot of things. The richest people in the
world don’t even serve in government. Dangote has never
been in government, so you don’t need to be in government
to be rich. Bill Gates has not been in government. So outside
government a lot of things happen, it is for us to be
committed and continue to be focus. Me and my wife really
love all of you.”he said