Elder statesman and pioneer National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Bisi Akande, has stated that despite the tensions and threats facing the country, Nigeria will continue to be more united, peaceful, developed and prosperous.
According to the former Governor of Osun state, the threats and tensions generated ahead of the 2023 general elections in the country by the opposition with a view to deny Bola Ahmed Tinubu victory in the 2023 presidential election was not a surprise considering that the country has faced similar threats during previous eras.
He added that the opposition had even before independence never wanted a united country, but with President Bola Tinubu Nigeria is destined for greatness.
Speaking as the Chairman of a One-Day lecture organised by Arewa Think Tank to celebrate one year anniversary of the President Bola Tinubu’s administration, Chief Akande said: “Since 1953, when a motion for independence was first moved in Parliament by Chief Tony Enahoro, our polity has been moving from tensions of one threat to another that Nigeria must not be allowed to continue as one and united country. Towards the last elections, the prophecy was thick that Bola Ahmed Tinubu would not become the APC candidate, he did become!
“Religious clerics of one belief and the other became sleepless for him not to win the presidential elections, he won! Spiritual threats and political maneuvering began thereafter that he would not be inaugurated as a Nigerian president, he assumed the presidency! The battle shifted to the judicial sword-crossing that he should be removed from the presidency, his presidency became upheld! Other predictions was that he would have no health to manage the office, he remained divinely healthy.
“Then the agitation that Nigeria would not survive his political agenda, Nigeria has been waxing stronger and stronger as one and united country! One Nigeria is a major part of what we are now celebrating. I was the pioneer national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) – the great political party that produced the President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu whose one year administrative anniversary was being officially celebrated since over a week up to yesterday.
“I am therefore particularly convinced that Nigeria will forever continue to be sustained as a more peaceful, more developed, more progressive and a more prosperous country under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and beyond. I urge all of us to be thinking about how to sustain a united, peaceful and prosperous Nigeria. May our collective and individual aspirations within a better and most respectable Nigeria be divinely realised.”
Speaking on the theme of the lecture, “Our Diversity, Our Strength”, the Guest Speaker and Governor of Benue state, Rev. Father Hyacinth Alia said Nigeria as country must not fail as its failure would negatively affect the entire Africa, as a continent. He stressed the need for Nigeria’s unity, saying that, “our religions should not be a dividing factor to us. We should not take our diversity for granted, our diversity should be our power, strength and unifying force that hold us together as one people.
“Diversity should not be a source of conflicts and tension, it should rather build more robust and prosperous Nigeria. If Nigeria fails as a nation, the entire countries in Africa will fail. Tinubu has brought hope of unity irrespective of our differences in religion, ethnicity and social status, and he stepped up progress or otherwise on infrastructure, education, health, agriculture and every possible parameter of social engineering,” Governor Alia said.
The Chief Host and Governor of Kaduna state, Sen. Uba Sani, in his remarks, harped on unity of Nigerians, saying that with unity of purpose, Nigeria and Nigerians would achieve the desired peace and progress. He said it was only when Nigerians come together as one that “there will be peace.”
He continued that President Bola Tinubu meant well for the country despite the current hardship occasioned by the removal of subsidy on oil and other policies of the current administration.
Going down memory lane, Sani said President Tinubu was one of those that fought for the enthronement of the current democracy.
He said the President was one of the financiers of pro-democracy movement at the period Nigerians wanted the military to leave for democracy to thrive. The Governor therefore, urged Nigerians to support the President despite the hardship because he (Tinubu) holds Nigerians and Nigeria high.
The Chief Convener Arewa Think Tank, Muhammad Alhail Yakubu, in his remarks, informed that, “the event aimed at strengthening and encouraging the ‘Renewed Hope Agenda’ of President Bola Tinubu which has several laudable brilliant layers linked to foreign investment drive, energizing the health sector, making education affordable for the poor and underserved, delivering good governance amidst debt burden, social and economic transformation, driving peace and religious harmony, as well as measures to combat rural banditry and insecurity across the country.
“The one-year stewardship of President Tinubu has recorded remarkable and impressive achievements in many aspects of governance considering the level of mismanagement and unfavorable security situation he inherited from the previous administration. It behoves on all patriotic citizens to support him, especially ‘his cabinet ministers and appointees to achieve greater successes necessary to propel the effectiveness, efficiency, and sustainability in governance and development that will ensure peace, progress, and unity of the country”.