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Nigerians will not regret making me President – Tinubu
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, on Thursday sent a message to Nigerians, currently going through harrowing experience of hardship and poverty and other social crisis – you will not regret investing your votes in me.
The President, who gave the assurance while hosting All Progressives Congress (APC) Women Leaders in the 36 States and the Federal Capital Territory, led by the APC National Woman Leader, Dr. Betta Edu, promised to wrench the country from the hands vested interests that have stifled its development.
Assuring the women that his administration’s top priorities would be security, healthcare, and industrialisation, the President was quoted in a statement by his spokesman, Dele Aleke that he already implementing many policies and programmes that would benefit citizens, including the Students’ Loan Scheme, which he claimed would ensure their children have a stable academic calendar in their respective tertiary institutions.
“We have established a scholarship scheme that would guarantee their four years of tertiary education. Security is paramount in my administration’s agenda because women bear the cost of insecurity anywhere in the world. Issues of insecurity are being discussed at the highest level and this administration will ensure that insecurity is halted immediately.
“Medicare is another. We will ensure that health facilities are revamped and we will pursue this with vigour. Industrialisation is yet another priority as your children and relations will gain employment.
“You all deserve gold medals because you worked so hard politically, overcoming so many obstacles like the fuel scarcity and Naira ‘confiscation,’ promising that their children would receive better rewards as their future is now guaranteed with the initiatives being put in place.
Tinubu, who told the visiting women that his new role as ECOWAS Chairman would not only give him more responsibility, also motivate him to work harder, added: “We will keep striving for a better Nigeria. You will not be sorry for putting your trust in this administration.”
While reiterating his administration’s open-door policy, the President explained that national unity was essential and central to his mind, advising the women leaders to be accommodating of others from other parties who, having seen the silver lining and the brighter future that awaits them, are now willing to join, adding that they must educate citizens about his administration’s policies and programmes, emphasising that the current difficulties are only temporary.
His words: “You understand better, you are better coordinators, you know how to multi-task. The gains of the subsidy removal will be channeled to better the lives of Nigerians from the few that have been fleecing the nation.”
Edu, who had stated that the women had come to congratulate the President on his election victory, his administration’s numerous good policies, and his election as ECOWAS Chairman at the last Summit, enumerated the President’s sterling records as Governor of Lagos State, which had endeared him to Nigerians, including the state’s unprecedented economic development and infrastructure developments, urging him to consider more female candidates for government positions.
“If we continue to pay ransom, we are encouraging these criminals to kidnap more people. The cycle will only continue unless we stop rewarding criminality,” were the words of Dauda Lawal, Governor of Zamfara State, with which he blamed those in the habit of paying ransoms as the major factor fuelling the current wave of kidnapping incidents across the country.
Lawal, on Thursday at the ARISE News/THISDAY Town Hall Conference on State Police and National Security in Abuja, told his audience how he flatly refused to pay a ₦300 million ransom demanded by kidnappers who abducted his brothers in 2019.
Reiterating his opposition to negotiating with bandits and renewed his support for the establishment of state police, Lawal, while recounting the incident, said: “My own brothers were kidnapped in 2019, and the kidnappers demanded about ₦300 million. I told them I was not going to pay a dime. If they wanted to kill them, they could go ahead.”
Stating that his brothers were eventually released without any ransom being paid, he argued that paying ransom usually emboldened criminal groups by providing financial incentives for further kidnappings.
He added: “My position on ransom payments remains unchanged. I will not negotiate, and I will not pay ransom to any criminal, no matter what happens.”
Endorsing the move for the establishment of state police, to enable governors have greater operational authority over security within their states, he regretted that the current constitutional arrangement left governors with responsibility for security without corresponding powers to direct security agencies.
His words: “In as much as I am called the chief security officer of the state, I do not have the command-and-control authority to direct the operations of the security agencies. I’m prepared to support the funding of state police if the proposed policing structure is established. I’m confident that decentralised policing will improve intelligence gathering, response time and the overall fight against insecurity.”
Exactly seven years, two months and four days after he forced Walter Onnoghen, the 16th Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) out of office, Danladi Umar, former Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), on Thursday, found himself in Kuje prison.
Justice Peter Kekemeke, of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), sitting in Maitama, handed the ex-CCT boss the unwelcome package on Thursday, following his arraignment by the Federal Government on a four-count corruption charge.
Umar’s ordeal began after an investigations revealed that he abused his official position by conferring an undue advantage on himself while serving as head of the tribunal, having in 2021, reportedly using his wife’s bank account to collect the sum of N5.5 million from a contractor engaged to paint the headquarters of the CCT in Abuja.
He was also accuse of using the same account to collect another N6million on January 25, 2024, from a contractor who handled the digitisation of the CCT’s records and yet another N2.43 million a contractor paid as tuition fee of his daughter at Baze University, Abuja.
After pleading not guilty to offences, said to be punishable under section 19 of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000, Christopher Mshelia, lawyer to the FG, prosecuting the matter, applied for his remand in a correctional facility, while urging the court to set a date for the commencement of trial.
His pleas to be freed on bail pending the determination of the case, was opposed by the prosecution, which drew the court’s attention to the fact that it had just been served with the bail application, saying it needed time to respond to it, forcing Kekemeke to adjourn the case till July 15 for hearing while the former CCT boss remained behind bars.
Umar, had as CCT Chairman, on January 23, 2019, issued a controversial ex parte order that led to the removal of a serving Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen.
Following the ex parte order, the late President Muhammadu Buhari, on January 25, swore in the next most senior jurist of the Supreme Court, Justice Tanko Muhammad, to take over the leadership of the judiciary as Acting CJN.
Even though Onnoghen later voluntarily resigned his position as CJN on April 4, Umar went ahead and convicted him on April 18, 2019, on the federal government’s allegation that he had failed to properly declare his assets as required by law.
He gave the federal government the go-ahead to confiscate all monies in five accounts belonging to the former CJN, and also removed him as Chairman of both the NJC and the Federal Judiciary Service Commission (FJSC).
President Bola Tinubu began his doo-to-door campaigns for Nigerians to renew his mandate in 2027 with a message for the citizens – evading difficulties must not be an option for building the great nation of their expectation.
At the inauguration of the campaign in Abuja, on Thursday, the President, represented by Godswill Akpabio, the Senate President, told his audience that his policies were aimed at laying the foundation for greater prosperity and national development.
At the event, tagged: PBAT Door-to-Door Movement, the President, maintained that he chose the path of courage and conviction in implementing reforms aimed at rescuing Nigeria and building a better future for the country, adding that since taking office on May 29, 2023, he had implemented a series of reforms, including the removal of the fuel subsidy and the unification of the foreign exchange market, among others, as part of efforts to reposition the economy and improve the welfare of Nigerians.
His words: “Although the reforms attracted concerns from some citizens over their immediate impact, President Tinubu has maintained that they would deliver long-term benefits and bring positive outcomes for Nigerians.
“Every great nation is built one citizen at a time, like a building block; one community at a time. Before there are crowds, there are households. Before there are victories at the ballot boxes, there are competitions at the doorsteps of every home.
“A movement that goes from door to door must do more than just seek support from every door it touches. It must carry truth, inspire confidence, listen to the people and household owners, and return to those same doors to tell them about the dividends of good governance after the goods. That is how democracies endure.
“The theme before us today speaks to one of the oldest truths in nation-building: every generation must decide whether it will choose the comfort of the familiar or the courage and discomfort of embracing necessary changes. Nations do not become great because they avoid difficult decisions. They become great because they confront difficulties with wisdom, patience, and patriotism.”
Stressing that he had repeatedly reminded us that reform is not an event, but a journey, he added: “The purpose of reform is not to make life difficult for the people, but to lay the foundation upon which future generations can build lives of greater dignity, prosperity, opportunities, and lasting progress. Lasting progress is rarely achieved without temporary sacrifice. “Good governance succeeds when the executive, the legislature, and the Nigerian people move forward together. So we are working together to ensure that every Nigerian feels the impact of our reforms.
“Politics should never divide us beyond repair. Elections may produce winners and losers, but Nigeria must always emerge the ultimate victor. Our nation is greater than any political party. Nigeria is greater than any officeholder. Nigeria is greater than any election. We inherited this republic from those who toiled and built it before us, and we hold it in trust for those who will come after us. Many of them are in this hall. Let us therefore conduct ourselves in ways that future generations will remember with gratitude.
“As you are inaugurated today, remember that you are ambassadors, not merely of a political movement, but of democratic engagement and process. Knock on every door with respect. Listen before you persist. Unite before you mobilise. Let every conversation strengthen faith in our democracy and confidence in Nigeria’s future.
“When politics is conducted with patriotism and service, every door opened becomes another gateway to national renewal. And every door leads to renewed hope for a greater Nigeria and, of course, a more prosperous nation.”
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