The former Presidential Candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Mr. Dumebi Kachikwu, Monday, called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to also ago after the fuel subsidies sabotuers, and those who benefited from the suspended governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele.
Kachikwu in his Democracy Day broadcast, though lauded Tinubu for ‘taking baby steps’, and his avowed committment to the tenets of democarcy and urged him not to renege on it.
He, however, said the president made a mistake of not announcing any structured palliative measures to cushion the effect of the subsidy removal.
He said: “It is with a renewed sense of hope and optimism that many Nigerians received the Democracy Day broadcast from President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Our nation is pregnant with hope, and we hope this won’t be another stillbirth.
“For too long the Nigerian people have endured. We have kept faith when promises made by successive governments didn’t materialise. We have been asked to be patient until we no longer know what it means to be patient. Our new president is already taking baby steps unlike President Buhari who crawled throughout his 8 years in office. Nigerians are all in agreement that we want a president who sees his time in office as a 100-metre sprint.
“It is a fight our president has promised to sustain, and we take him at his words because never has Nigeria needed a people’s champion like we do today.
He should now go beyond campaign rhetoric and put in place the processes and plans required to rebuild our nation.
“The Nigerian people will stand behind any president who is truly committed to his oath of office. We will endure as long as know we are all in this together. Our president made the mistake of not announcing any structured palliative measures to cushion the effect of the subsidy removal.
“While we align with any and all efforts towards bringing to book all those who sabotaged our economy and threatened our way of life, there must be no sacred cows. This means that Godwin Emefiele the Central Bank Governor mustn’t stand alone in the court of justice.
“If the president turns a blind eye to the monumental corruption at the NNPCL where subsidy fraud in the trillions of naira is said to have taken place, then he will give credence to the rumours that some of that money was used to fund his elections.
“He would also be seen to support the notion that the law discriminates against people of Ibo extraction. All those in the previous administration who abused their offices must be brought to book. Many Nigerians who voted for the president did so believing that he intends to use this opportunity to rewrite his biography and as such they expect that President Bola Tinubu will be the president who eliminates corruption from our socio-political DNA.
“They believe that a business minded President Tinubu knows what it takes to turn around the economy. They pray that our new president will have the honour of presiding over the birth of new Nigerian constitution that truly represents the aspirations of all Nigerians.
“He also got it wrong when he said illegal orders used to truncate or abridge democracy will no longer be tolerated. The judiciary remains an equal arm of government and must be treated as such. Nigerians will no longer tolerate an overbearing and overreaching executive arm of government who pressurises the judiciary to act in their favour.
“Our president needs to put forward a competent team free of legal and political encumbrances because there is much to be done. If he doesn’t do this in the next 72 hours there are many who will believe he is as confused as his predecessor.”