On Friday, a repentant President Muhammadu Buhari acknowledged that he had mistreated many Nigerians and begged for pardon.

Buhari asked anyone he might have harmed in the course of his duties to forgive him while speaking at the ninth and last Sallah homage by inhabitants of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

The President also expressed his gratitude to Nigerians for their patience with him during the previous seven and a half years of his rule.

I think it’s a good time to say goodbye and thank you for putting up with me for the past more than seven and a half years.

“I think this is a very good coincidence for me to say goodbye to you and to thank you for tolerating me for more than seven and half years now.”

“I assure you, I have deliberately arranged to be as far away from you as possible not because I don’t appreciate the love you’ve shown to me, but because I think I’ve gotten what I have asked and I would rather quietly retire to my hometown.

“Having been a Governor, Minister and the President twice, I think God has given us an incredible opportunity to serve as your president. And I thank God for that. So, please whoever feels I have done wrong to, we are all humans. There is no doubt I hurt some people and I wish you will pardon me. And those that think that I have hurt them so much, please pardon me.”