Council of State: Gowon, Buhari, Jonathan, Abdulsalami pass vote of confidence on Tinubu

Former Nigerian leaders, including General Yakubu Gowon, Muhammadu Buhari, Goodluck Jonathan, and General Abdulsalami Abubakar, on Tuesday passed a vote of confidence in President Bola Tinubu’s leadership of the nation and declared their readiness to resist any attempt at an unconstitutional change of government in the country.

This was the fallout of the meeting of the National Council of State presided over by President Tinubu at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Specifically, the council comprises the president as chairman and the vice president as deputy chairman, all living former Heads of State and Presidents, all former Chief Justices of Nigeria, the President of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, all state governors, and the Attorney-General of the Federation as members.

It is an organ of the federal government saddled with the responsibility of advising the executive on policy making.

While both former Presidents Buhari and Jonathan attended the meeting physically, General Gowon and Abubakar joined virtually.

However, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida were absent.

Rising from the closed-door meeting, which lasted several hours, the Governor of Kwara State and the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, said the council unanimously passed a vote of confidence in Tinubu for the way he has governed the country.

He said the council also expressed satisfaction with the presentations made by ministers on the progress of the economy.

Also speaking, Minister of Solid Mineral Development, Dele Alake, said the council also praised Tinubu for resisting a forceful takeover of government.

Alake, who described the recent #EndBadGovernance action was not a protest but a movement, said the council affirmed that nobody would be allowed to change the government except through the ballot box.

Describing the action by the aggrieved persons as a decoy “to effect a change of regime by force,” Alake, however, commended Nigerians for “resisting the unconstitutional move to change the government,” saying, “If anybody is not satisfied with the government or the current administration, there’s always an election coming. So, you wait for the election and cast your vote.”

He affirmed the council’s position that any unconstitutional change of government would not be tolerated.

He revealed that seven ministers made presentations to the council on the progress being made on economic diversification and the economy, while the National Security Adviser (NSA) allayed all fears, assuring that “nobody will be allowed to truncate our hard-earned democracy. Any change of government has to be through the ballot and not through the barrel of the gun, or through insurrection or through any other unconstitutional means. Only through the ballot box can anybody be changed.”

On his part, Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, said the ministers updated the council on the progress of the macroeconomic policies being followed, which he said has placed the country on the path of growth and stability.

“As my colleague, Honourable Minister for Solid Minerals, as well as the Chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum and Governor of Kwara State, have said, 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 numbers to participate, and we had the opportunity to, in my case,

“I updated them on the economy, updated them on how much progress has been made in terms of the macroeconomic policies being followed under the leadership of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and these policies are anchored in his eight priority areas, and the results to date have been very encouraging.

“So, in a nutshell, we reported that there was good progress being made, that efforts were 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, and for small-scale businesses, were going to continue to be implemented with all efforts needed for success.

“On that basis, we reported an optimistic outlook for the Nigerian economy and Nigerian society in general, as a result of prospects for economic growth and economic progress,” Edun said.