from EMEKA OKONKWO in Abuja, Nigeria
Nigeria Bureau
ABUJA, (CAJ News) – A GOVERNMENT of the people, by the people.
That will be the new administration at the helm of Africa’s largest nation by population and biggest economy when Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu assumes office in late May.
The ex-Lagos governor is the president-elect following a tight contest last Saturday to succeed incumbent Muhammadu Buhari, of Tinubu’s All Progressives Congress (APC).
Following his election, Tinubu (70) met members of the APC National Working Committee (NWC) in his residence in the capital, Abuja.
“It is going to be a fair government guided by the rule of law, justice and fairness,” he said.
“It is going to be hard work from day one and we are going to join hands in building a government of the people and by the people,” Tinubu said.
Abdulaziz Abdulaziz, a publicist from the Tinubu Media Office, made the incoming president’s remarks late on Thursday available to the media.
“We drew a strong commitment with Nigerians. From the primary we were transparent. We were committed to our ideals. We promised Nigerians that if we win we will work for all Nigerians,” Tinubu is quoted.
A formidable task to unite Nigerians now more divided following the disputed elections lies ahead.
“I am committed to uniting the country,” Tinubu pledged.
“In any contest, particularly democratic, there must be losers and winners,” he said.
Main rivals, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP), claim the elections were rigged. The disgruntled presidential aspirants are expected to recourse to the courts to file their grievances.
According to the APC, Tinubu has pledged to “hit the ground running” from his first day in office, as the fifth president since the demise of military rule in 1999.
Buhari, in power since 2015 when APC defeated PDP, is to hand over power on May 29.
His reign focused on cracking down against corruption and eliminating Islamist groups wreaking havoc in the northeast.
While progress was attained, mostly in the latter, kidnap gangs and so-called bandits have been escalating their reign of terror across the country.
Also under Buhari, the West African nation has recently experienced shortages of cash, after redesigning the bigger denomination of the naira, and intermittent scarcity of fuel in Africa’s biggest producer of crude oil.
– CAJ News