The North Central Christian Coalition for Responsive and Accountable Governance (NCCCRA) has congratulated Asiwaju Bola Tinubu Ahmed over his victory in the February 25 presidential and National Assembly elections.
A statement signed by the National Coordinator of the Coalition, Sir Festus Nyiwo said they celebrate what he desribed as Tinubu’s hard-fought and earned victory in the polls.
He said, from the onset, they beamed searchlight on all the presidential candidates and arrived at the choice of Senator Asiwaju Bola Tinubu Ahmed as best suited to deal with the complex issues bedeviling Nigeria.
“We did not just lay our heads on the easy pillow of convenience as a basis for an outright rejection of the Muslim-Muslim ticket, but consciously lifted the veil to see what lay underneath it.
*Undoubtedly, this election was more about security (suffered mostly in the Middle Belt region of the country) and the corporate existence of Nigeria than thing else.”
The Coalition described security as the foundation of socio-economic development and growth, including sustainable development – undisturbed or undisrupted, and urged Tinubu to tackle security headlong.
‘If security was well taken care of, the private sector, including farming, would hardly need government interference to develop and grow; it could naturally assume a life of its own, attracting the much needed foreign investments.
“We believe that Tinubu was the better candidate out of the whole lot because of his demonstrable antecedents in areas of governance, security, and international peace-keeping efforts and sacrifices.
“For one, Tinubu defended democracy during the dark days of the Abacha’s military dictatorship in the 90s.”
The recalled Tinubu’s days in Democratic struggle under the National Democratic Coalition NSDECO, saying the former governor of Lagos State substantially bankrolled NADECO, a pro-democracy movement that was at the forefront of democratization struggles in the 90s, and insisted on the actualization of MKO’s June 12 mandate rather than serve in Abacha’s regime.
“Significantly, too, Tinubu, the fact that he berated renowned historian, Prof Banji Akintoye, over a threat by his group to pull the South West geopolitical zone out of Nigeria assured us that he was not a separatist in any shape or form; believing in the corporate existence of the country.
“As a pan-Africanist, Tinubu helped restore democracy in The Gambia, resolved the building political crisis, and the safe return of President Adama Barrow to The Gambia to assume his mandate, by lending his plan to fly Yahaya Jammeh and his family to exile at the behest of ECOWAS leaders.
“Accordingly, we mobilised massive support for Tinubu, in the February 25 Nigeria presidential election in the North-Central region based on the assured belief that the Christian community in Nigeria, particularly, in the North Central region, will be well accommodated as per his Manifesto and our campaign promises to the electorate.
“Finally, we also believed in his demonstrable antecedence in governance over the years and his unique attributes to identify and place talents in offices for optimal productivity.
“And we believe that the offices of the Chief of Staff, the Secretary to the Federal Government, the Senate presidency, Speaker of the House of Representatives, and other notable ministries and parastatals or agencies will be a good place to start.”
