Northern Elders Forum (NEF), yesterday, called on President Bola Tinubu to honour his campaign promises in the coming days. It equally congratulated re-elected and new governors, urging them to live up to their oath of office.
The body, in a statement by its Director, Publicity and Advocacy, Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, said: “We wish to remind President Tinubu of his promise to take on insecurity, poverty and high-quality governance as priorities, and commend him for his vision of re-discovering Nigeria’s greatness, which will be reflected in the lives of ordinary Nigerians.
“Issues such as inclusion, ensuring justice and fighting corruption should be prioritised as well. Policies that compound poverty should be avoided, and where difficult decisions need to be taken, they should be accompanied with compassion, sensitivity and adequate public awareness.
“The Forum will work with Tinubu and governors to actualise their promises to make Nigerians more secure and improve the economy to reduce poverty and desperation.”
In a related development, a group, Corruption Trackers Initiative, charged the President to be decisive and ruthless against graft if he must succeed.
The Executive Director, Hamza Abidin, at a press conference in Kaduna, yesterday, said Tinubu must not allow anybody irrespective of political affiliation, tribe or religion escape punishment if found guilty of corruption.
According to him, TCTI has been able to track over 17 agencies and parastatals in the area of corruption, accountability, value for money, prudency and transparency.
He said some of the affected organisations have been able to prove record of accountability, transparency and good governance, while others still stink of graft and bad leadership.
Abidin, while lamenting that corruption has eaten deeply into the country’s moral fabric, he deplored the hypocritical attitude of Nigerians.
His words: “We were able to track over 17 agencies and parastatals in the area of corruption, accountability, value for money, prudency and transparency. Some of these organisations were able to prove a good record of accountability, transparency and good governance, while some stink of corruption and bad leadership.
“We are calling on the President, Bola Tinubu, to be so decisive and ruthless on issue of corruption if he wants to succeed.
“We found out that some agencies, ministries and parastatals engage in (fraudulent) last minute recruitment, procurement, contract awarding, auctioning and others.”
