The President of the Senate Ken Nnamani has also reiterated the same message to Nigerian Muslims.

“Times like this call for sober reflection and ardent prayers so that the little gains of democracy does not fall to the ground,’’ Nnamani said in a message signed by his Chief Press Secretary Tunde Asaju, according to VanGuardNgr Web site Wednesday.

Nnamani sent the statement from New York where he is attending a conference of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, IPU.

Highlighting the fact that Nigeria is just recovering from the plane crash tragedy, Nnamani said that it was incumbent on all Muslim faithful to pray for the country for ‘‘divine guidance and the courage not to lose faith and hope.’’

Governor of Kwara State Bukola Saraki, on his part, enjoined Muslims to use the opportunity of the fast in Ramadan to rededicate themselves to the commandments and teachings of Allah as enshrined in the Noble Qur’an and the Sunnah (Prophetic Tradition).

He, according to ThisDay Web site, urged them to continue on the path of caring for their neighbors and the needy so that their supplications and good deeds of the past one month would not be in vain, adding that the tragedies of last week called for a low-keyed celebration.

Saraki also called for peaceful and harmonious religious co-habitation between people of the various religious persuasions in the state in the ideal attribution of the state as the state of harmony.

On Saturday, October 22, a Nigerian airliner with 117 people on board, including several high ranking officials, crashed overnight shortly after taking off from Lagos en route to the capital Abuja.

None of the 117 passengers and crew on board survived, the National Emergency Management Agency said Sunday.

Nigeria has the largest Muslim population in sub-Saharan Africa.

About half of Nigeria's population of 140 million are Muslims while the other half are Christians or animists.