Against the backdrop of the conclusion of the legal tussle for the Nigerian presidency, the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), has congratulated President Bola Tinubu on his victory at the Supreme Court while urging him to act on the manifesto of the All Progressives Congress (APC), as well as the recommendations of the Nasir el-Rufai-led panel’s on restructuring.
The group, which played prominent roles in the struggle for the restoration of democratic rule in 1999, called President Tinubu ‘as a critical stakeholder in the highest structure of NADECO, who expended his resources and network together with others while we were in the trenches’ to ‘prove beyond reasonable doubts that he remains faithful and committed to restoring Nigeria to the negotiated federal constitution.’
Mr Ayo Opadokun who is the National Publicity of NADECO, in a statement, said: ‘No one needs to remind Mr President that the current warped, skewed, and lopsided national structure must be reconfigured to give hope and a sense of belonging to all Nigerians that they are an equal joint stakeholder in the Nigerian Project.’
Opadokun, who disowned NADECO USA, which he said was dissolved by NADECO’s late Leader, Chief Enahoro, in 1999, noted that this is time to face Nigeria’s socio-economic challenges headlong.
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The statement which was obtained by Africa Today News, New York on Monday morning reads in part: ‘NADECO wishes to congratulate President Tinubu on his judicial victory confirmation by the Supreme Court of Nigeria in its October 26 2023, verdict on the election petitions filed by political opponents against his declared victory by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC after the February 25, 2023, Presidential Election.
‘Even though our preference was for the Nigerian State to first organize the necessary and desirable return to Federal Constitutional Governance upon which Nigeria secured her independence, we are gratified that the partisan politicians have locked horns, campaigned, contested, won and lost election and have exhausted all the legal remedies available for whatever redress they deemed fit in the circumstances of the elections.
‘Now is the time to deliver the much-expected services in the socio-economic and political sphere through well thought out and rightly directed policies desirable to quickly alleviate the unacceptable level of suffering, poverty, economic misery and neglect to which Nigerians have been subjected by immediate past rulers and leaders, for many years now.
‘While we strongly desire an immediate upliftment in the standard and quality of living of Nigerians, we expect much more than the necessary bread and butter economic gains.