Senate President Bukola Saraki has congratulated the President-Elect of the United States of America, Donald Trump, on his victory in the U.S presidential election.
Saraki who commended Trump for his perseverance ‘through a very challenging Republican primary election cycle’ praised his main challenger Hillary Clinton for calling the president-elect to concede defeat.
Republican Trump stunned the world by defeating former Secretary of State Clinton in the race for the White House, ending eight years of Democratic rule and will become the 45th President of the United States.
In his congratulatory letter dated November 9, 2016, the Senate President said: “Trump’s years of being a private sector leader can be invaluable to Nigeria as we work to restructure and diversify our economy.
“It is my hope and prayer that the United States can move beyond this election and heal the divisions that divide that great nation. Mr. Trump has an opportunity to be a unifying force and I believe his humble acceptance speech was a great beginning”.
In his congratulatory message, Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu enjoined emerging democracies, including Nigeria, to emulate the democratic and transparent nature of the U.S election, noting that the will of the people and respect for democratic principles must be allowed at all times.
“We have many lessons to learn from the American presidential election. It was highly democratic, transparent, peaceful, and free of intimidation, willful manipulations, contrived security scares; and it was absolutely conclusive, even though the ruling party was losing, and eventually lost” Ekweremadu stated.
Also in a statement on Wednesday, Dayo Adeyeye, National Publicity Secretary, PDP National Caretaker Committee urged President-Elect Trump to move quickly to heal the divides and to reassure all Americans, particularly its minorities, that his administration will pursue policies and programmes that protect and promotes all their constitutional rights and freedoms.
The opposition party also tasked Trump to quickly formulate policies that will ensure a mutually beneficial relationship between the US and Africa in general, and Nigeria in particular.
“At this time, the US and Nigeria must work harder to deepen mutual security and economic interests”, Adeyeye said.
