The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Tuesday raised a special prayer for President Muhammadu Buhari over his ill-health but concluded it by mocking his government.

Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu at the handover ceremony of the party secretariat to the caretaker committee of the party headed by Senator Ahmed Markafi led a special prayer for the president, asking for God’s intervention in his health.

The Ondo State governor, Olusegun Mimiko, who also spoke in line with Ekweremadu lampooned the government, saying the current administration under President Buhari has further divided the nation rather than unite the people.

He accused the president of gradually turning to a dictator, which he said will be to the detriment of the entire nation.

Praying for the President, Ekweremadu said, “Our God and father, we know You are the physician of all physicians, the Healer of all healers. Father, You give power to who You have chosen. This Your servant General Buhari You have made our president today; father may it please You to give him good health. Whatever is afflicting him, Father we are appealing to You to stretch Your healing hands and make him whole again. Heal him and restore his health for the good of this country.

“We pray that he will return in earnest to continue the work that has been given to him. May it please You Lord to be with each and every one of us so that we will all be in sound health and he pilots the affairs of this great country.

“Mighty Jehovah, we pray Lord that you be with our president’s family. Help them Lord in their endeavours and imbibe him with great wisdom. At the end of the day, may all the glory, and adoration be ascribed unto You in Jesus’ mighty name”.

However, as soon as he finished praying for the president, he made snide comments on his administration.

According to him, the PDP failure to win the 2015 general elections was the reason why the nation is in trouble under the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

But he said further that the new found unity in the party will bring an end to the troubles of the nation.

According to him, the current government has destroyed the economy of the nation, with Nigeria currency, the naira, at its weakest point ever.

He also blamed the government for the near depression of the economy with a promise to Nigerians that the situation will be remedied once the PDP takes over again in 2019.

“What we are witnessing today is a PDP with a new spirit: spirit of togetherness, love. We are going to give this new spirit a new body, going forward.

“We must apologise to certain institutions and aspects of our national life. And to our currency, we are worried and we are sorry about the dwindling fortune of our currency.

“We are worried about the weakness of our currency. But we want to assure our currency that by 2019, you will be strong again. Our economy, by the time we left in 2015 was the strongest in Africa.

“We want to tell all of our people who are losing their employment in banks, construction companies that by the time PDP returns to power in 2019 the story will change.

“To the people of Nigeria, there is still hope. We sympathise with you with what you are going through today. But with the PDP you are seeing today, there is hope for our country. And we believe we can endure the hardship of the three more years coming between now and 2019 because there is light at the end of the tunnel. And when this light will come, it will shine forever in Nigeria.

“Our promise to the people of Nigeria is that we are going to produce the next President of this country in 2019. We will produce the President based on superior argument”, he said.

The Ondo State governor took over the baton, bashing the government and practically declaring it a misfit.

He noted that the dividing forces in the country are getting stronger because of bad governance of the current government, while he decried the loss of lives to needless bloodshed across the country.

The governor was emphatic that the government of the day was responsible for the ills bedeviling the nation.

“These are unhappy times for the nation. Sen. Ekweremadu has talked about the state of our economy but even beyond that in all my time in this country as an adolescent and as a political active adult, which is a few years now, dying has never been this cheap in this country; beheading, dying has never come to the forefront of national discourse.