The Council of State comprising former Presidents and Heads of State, the President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Representatives, serving and retired Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, as well as State governors on Tuesday passed a vote of confidence on President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
This is as the Council of State has described the recent
hunger and bad governance protest as an insurrection and a movement aimed at
regime change
The former leaders that passed the confidence vote on
President Tinubu included Generals Yakubu Gowon, Muhammadu Buhari and
Abdulsalami Abubakar, as well as former President Goodluck Jonathan.
The confidence vote was passed during the National Council
of State meeting, presided over by President Tinubu at the Presidential Villa,
Abuja.
Both former presidents Buhari and Jonathan attended the
meeting physically while Generals Gowon and Abubakar joined virtually.
However, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and General Ibrahim Badamasi
Babangida, IBB, were absent and there was no reason given for their absence.
Briefing State House correspondents after the meeting, the
Governor of Kwara State and Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF)
Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq said the council unanimously passed a vote of confidence
on Tinubu on the way he has governed the country.
He said the council was satisfied with the presentations
made by ministers on the progress of the economy.
He said, “We indeed had a very robust meeting. The high note
of the meeting was a unanimous passage of a vote of confidence on President
Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR, Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian armed forces.
“Members, especially
those of the Nigerian Governors Forum, were satisfied with the presentation by
the members of the Federal Executive Council, and after that meeting, there was
an executive session between members of the Nigerian Governors Forum and Mr
President.
“Frank and fruitful discussions were held between both
parties, and I’m glad to say we’re on the right track. And to say in the same
vein, members of the NGF also, like the members of the Council of State, passed
a vote of confidence on Mr President.
“We also wished him well and prayed for God guidance for
him.”
Also speaking, the Minister of Solid Mineral Development, Dr
Dele Alake, said the council also praised Tinubu for resisting a forceful
takeover of government.
Alake said that the National Security Adviser, NSA Mallam
Nuhu Ribadu briefed the Council of State on the security situation in the country
especially on issues before, during and after the nationwide protests.
The Minister said that the #EndBadGovernance was not a
protest but a movement and that the Council of State thought that nobody should
be allowed to truncate the hard-earned democracy and that any change will be
through the ballot box and not by insurrection.
He revealed that seven ministers made presentations to the
council on the progress being made on economic diversification and economy.
He said, “As you all are aware, the Council of State just
concluded its meeting with all the former heads of state in attendance,
physically or virtually.
“The last count, I think most of them were physically
attending. The former heads of state, General Buhari and President Goodluck
Jonathan, were there physically, and the rest were there virtually, via Zoom.
“So in essence, in principle, all of them were in
attendance. And that’s a very eloquent testimony to the kind of support that
they are giving to our current president, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“A lot of issues were exhaustively discussed at the meeting.
And of course, you know that, apart from the former heads of state, the
Constitutional composition of the Council of State includes all governors,,
security adviser, Attorney General and the rest. So the governors were all in
attendance as well.
“And some of us ministers who are invited to make
presentations on our road map on what we’ve been able to achieve, the prospects
and the challenges in our various ministries.
“And so myself, the Solid Minerals, coordinating Minister of
the Economy and the Finance Minister, Mr Wale Edun was also there to make a
presentation.
“The Minister of Budget was also there he made his
presentation. The Minister of Works also made a presentation, the Minister of
Trade and Investment. Dr Doris was also there. The Minister of Agriculture also
was invited.
“So these seven of us ministers made individual
presentations to the council of state meeting, and our presentations were well
received from the feedback that we got immediately after individual
presentations.
“And of course, at the end of it, matters of state of the
nation were discussed, in a robust manner and frank manner. And the National
Security Adviser also was on hand to present the security situation of the
country.
“And he did inform the Council of State about the pre-,
during and post-event of the last protests, which I do not call a protest. I
call a movement to effect a change of regime by force, which was also resisted.
“And so, you know, the council thanked Nigerians at large
for resisting any unconstitutional move to change the government, if anybody is
not satisfied with the government, any current administration, there is always
an election coming, so you wait for an election and cast your vote.
“So the NSA briefed the Council on the security situations
and allayed fears all around.
“So after the NSA’s briefing, generally, he allayed
everybody’s fears and spoke on the tightness of the security around the
country, and also reassured all and sundry that nobody will be allowed to
truncate our hard-earned democracy.
“Any change of government has to be through the ballots and
not through the barrel of the gun or insurrection or any other unconstitutional
means, only through the ballot box can any government be changed.
“And he reassured on the security readiness of all security
agencies in the country, to secure our territorial integrity and to protect
Nigeria’s democracy.
“Now the details of the presentation that the ministers did
will be too long for you, but succinctly put is just to let the Council of
State know the progress being made in each sector of the economy and the
emphasis, of course, by the Renewed Hope Agenda, is on economic
diversification.
“That’s why I was there. That’s why Agric was there. That’s
why all the other ministers you know that constitute, or the ministries that
constitute the plank of the Renewed Hope Agendas, economic diversification and
transformation.”
On his part, minister of Finance, Wale Edun, said he had the
opportunity to present to the Council of State to update them on the economy
and the progress made so far
He said, “Indeed, as the Honourable Minister of Solid
Minerals and the Chairman of the Governors forum and Governor of Kwara State
have said, we did have the opportunity and the privilege to present to the
Council of State, and in particular the former presidents, who turned out a
large number to participate, and we had the opportunity to, in my case, update
them on the economy, update them on how far progress had been made in terms of
the macroeconomic policies being followed under the leadership of President
Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and these policies are anchored in his eight priority areas
and the results to date have been very encouraging.
“We looked at the data, or we reported on the evidence and
the data of this half year for which data was available compared to the first
quarter and the second quarter of 2023.
“And in broad terms, the economy is growing. The balance of
payments, in particular, the trade balance and a current account balance are in
surplus. The exchange rate is stabilizing, and inflation, though high,
uncomfortably high for the liking of Mr. President and his team, it is slowing
and it is set to fall.
“But in particular, there has been support for the economy
from investors, foreign investors, by way of portfolio investors, domestic
investors, who are participating in important private-public partnerships,
particularly infrastructure sector and foreign direct investment, is beginning
to recover, I would say so.
“On that basis, we reported in particular, the opportunities
for the economy once stabilized for investment and growth, and identified for
the meeting was the fact that we have exports goods, Non-oil exports, at $55
billion last year with tremendous room to grow.
“And in particular, we identified that the service sector,
that is, software services, computer services, accounting services, personnel
services, which can be provided by young Nigerians staying in Nigeria and
providing services through the internet and telephones, outsourcing in a world
was a big area we emphasized.
“So in a nutshell, we reported that there was good progress
being made and that the effort was going to continue to ensure that the
interventions and measures to ameliorate the high cost of living for
individuals, for the agricultural sector, for industry, for small scale
businesses, were going to continue to be implemented with all efforts needed
for success.
“And on that basis, we reported an optimistic outlook for
the Nigerian economy and the Nigerian society in general, as a result of
prospects for economic growth and economic progress.”
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