Sun Myung Moon
July 15, 2011
Abuja, Nigeria
The following is a brief summary of True Parents' activities in Nigeria. (This information is from the web page Unificationism.)
True Parents arrived at the hotel in Abuja Nigeria at 9:30 a.m. on the 15th and had appointment with President Goodluck Jonathan at 1:00 p.m. Although Father was reported that they needed to prepare for the meeting, he said, "Before I meet the president, I must be ready in heart by listening to Hoon Dok words."
Mrs. McDevitt read Father's speech from his speech book # 26, titled "In the Flower of Youth."
During Hoon Dok Hae, Father introduced Rev. Kathy Rigney, who has been a missionary in Africa for 35 years, and said, "If not for this event, she would come close to dying by just having giving herself trouble as a missionary. Since we have this opportunity, she can be remembered in the missionary history of True Parents as the number one missionary in the Unification Church."
Father heard that the daughter of Mr. Sakamoto, who Seunghwa (died) a martyer during his missionary work in Tanzania, was at the meeting, called her to come to the front, and gave her encouraging words.
After the reading, Father said, "When you receive grace, you need to be grateful and sing a song for harmony. Harmony creates unity and unity does not come first. Harmony comes first." Then some continental directors sang songs, and True Parents sang a song, which concluded the meeting before 11:00 a.m.
True Parents talked with the president for 40 minutes at the presidential office. President Goodluck Jonathan, who entered the presidency on May 28 this year, is now in a tight schedule, especially after having announced his cabinet ministers on July 14th, however, he had changed his schedule to invite and meet True Parents. His parents named him hoping he would "live always with good luck." He majored in zoology at college and became a high school teacher. After being involved in citizen's movement to protect environments, he became a vice-mayor in 1998 and when the then-mayor was impeached for receiving bribes he became a mayor. When the then-president died of cardiac disease in May, 2010, he succeeded to presidency and served out the remaining period, and was elected as the president on May 28 with massive support of Nigerian people. When True Mother visited Nigeria for her world tour in 2006, he, who was the mayor then, donated $70,000 to the event.
At the ILC (International Leadership Conference) on the 17th, more than 500 representatives from 54 nations in Africa and 150 from Nigeria are expected to participate as well as the representatives from 12 European nations where True Parents visited this year and from the world. A total of 3,000 participants are expected to participate.