Following their separate meetings on Tuesday, the Nigerian Governors’ Forum and the National Council of States (NCS) agreed to support President Bola Tinubu’s one-year, three-month-old administration.
The Nigerian Governors Forum and President Tinubu met separately at the same location after the National Council of States, which is made up of former presidents, some ministers, governors, and others, held its first meeting in the Council Chambers of the State House in Abuja.
Former Presidents Muhammadu Buhari and Goodluck Jonathan attended the Council of States meeting virtually, as did former Heads of State General Yakubu Gowon and Abdulsalam Abubakar. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo and former military President Ibrahim Babangida were conspicuously absent.
Alhaji Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, the governor of Kwara State and chairman of the NGF, briefed reporters following the meetings. He said that after hearing presentations from some of his ministers regarding the implementation of the current administration’s Renewed Hope Agenda, the two meetings resulted in a resolution to pass a vote of confidence in President Tinubu.
“We did have a very robust meeting,” he stated. The unanimous adoption of a vote of confidence in President Bola Tinubu, the Commander in Chief of the Nigerian armed forces, was the meeting’s high point.
“Members, especially those of the Nigerian Governor’s 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 Governor’s Forum and Mr President, and 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 wish him well and pray for God, guidance for him.”
Also briefing newsmen on the outcome of the Council of States meeting, Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake said the meeting which was well attended showed a very eloquent testimony to the kind of support that they are giving to President Tinubu.
He explained that many issues were discussed at the meeting with seven members of the Tinubu’s cabinet making presentations before the Council members.
His words: “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 presentation. The Minister of Budget was also there he made his presentation. The Minister of works also made 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”.
Alake further revealed that other matters of state including the security situation the country were extensively discussed with the National Security Adviser, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu assuring that the nation is well secured despite the recent peaceful protests across the country.
He also said the NCS appreciated Nigerians for resisting any attempt to unconstitutionally effect change of government in the country.
According to Alake: ” Matters of state 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 it 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 government, if anybody is not satisfied with the government, any current administration, there is always an election coming, so you wait for election and cast your vote.
“So the NSA briefed the Council on the security situations, and allayed fears all round. 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 through insurrection or through 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. And 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, Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun told newsmen that he had a robust engagement with the Council of State members during which he was able to paint an upward outlook of the nation’s economy.
He ssid: “We did have the opportunity and the privilege to present to the Council of State, and in particular the former presidents, who turned out in 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 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 on, 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 exports, 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 through telephones, outsourcing in a world was a big area we emphasized.
“So in a nutshell, we reported that there was good progress being made 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”.