— Obasanjo, IBB Absent
–— As Council describes recent protests as attempted regime change
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 13 August passed a vote of confidence on President Bola Tinubu and his 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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