Date: 2014-06-11

Former Head of State, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, yesterday expressed confidence that Nigeria would overcome the current security challenges facing it.

Gen. Abubakar said as someone who had watched the country triumph over a civil war and several other crises and had the privilege of supervising the country's return to democracy, "I am troubled by the challenges that currently confront our country.

"However, I have no doubt in my mind that our country will overcome these transient challenges and take its rightful place in the league of prosperous nations," he said.

He stated this in Ilorin yesterday when he commissioned the rehabilitated Ilorin General Hospital. He said government at all levels should continue to implement programmes and projects that would elevate Nigerians and provide them with sustainable standards of living.

Abubakar also urged people of the state to make the best use of the facilities in the hospital through adequate patronage to meet their health needs, stressing that it is only in making efficient use of the facilities that Kwarans can justify government's huge investment in the scheme.

"Government's efforts and today's (yesterday) opening of this beautiful edifice as well as the entrenchment of equity and justice can hold the promise of restoring our people's faith in this country and strengthen our preparedness to work together to build the Nigeria we all desire and deserve," he said.

He commended Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed for the upgrade of the hospital into a state-of-art health facility.