Amidst growing disaffection among Nigerians occasioned by increasing debt profiles, unemployment rates, and poverty, the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has vowed to continue with President Muhammadu Buhari’s “lasting legacies” beyond 2023.
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Tinubu made these remarks while delivering a goodwill message on the second day at the ongoing 3-day Retreat for Ministers and Permanent Secretaries in Abuja on Tuesday.
In a statement signed by Tunde Rahman, head Tinubu Media Office, on Tuesday, the APC candidate said he supports all the efforts made by the Buhari administration in the last seven years to “set the country on the right path after years of maladministration would never be forgotten by Nigerians even long time after they have left.”
Tinubu spoke on the theme, “Enhance Security, Fight Corruption, Transform the Economy” during the Retreat.
“Thank you, President Buhari and may I say thank you on behalf of all Nigerians to your entire administration, represented by all present today. We supported you before your first day in office. I will remain your friend and ally even after your final day at the job.
“I can say this because I know the vision you hold for Nigeria. It is a good and uplifting one. I know the level of patriotic dedication with which you have served this nation. I know the things you have achieved.
“May I say this to you and to your entire team: the things you have done are important and enduring. Try as they might, no one can take those achievements away from you. Yet, it is the fate of the selfless worker to labor too hard and too long to write his own story. He would rather accomplish things for good of all than to focus attention on himself,” he said.
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The former Lagos State Governor said despite different challenges the nation and the world at large faced, the Buhari administarion stood tall, building infrastructure, rescuing the nation from its security crisis, passing and signing into law of the Petroleum Industry Act, electoral reforms and putting smiles on the faces of all Nigerians.
“His labor and achievements may go unappreciated for a moment. However, that unfair moment cannot last. In due course, the full extent of his contributions will become known and understood.
“Any objective assessment of your time in office and the national contributions you all have made will be a positive and grateful one.
“This administration inherited a national condition steeped in difficulty unlike any other. Predecessor-governments ignored or lacked the will to tackle serious problems ranging from insecurity to corruption.
“As if that was not enough, you confronted a series of events, unprecedented in the compound severity, complexity and novelty they posed. COVID attacked both global health and the global economy. Throughout most of your tenure, oil prices waned and ebbed and, consequently, so did our revenues.”
Buhari campaigned in 2015 with the firm promise to revive Nigeria’s ailing economy, fight against corruption, and launch spirited anti-corruption campaigns. Seven years after, many analysts are of the opinion that the results so far have been largely uninspiring.