Lucky Obukohwo Reporting
A group, Arewa Think Tank, has called on Nigerians not to blame president Bola Tinubu for the present economic hardship and the insecurity that have bedeviled the country noting that they were inherited problems.
The Convener of Arewa Think Tank, Muhammad Alhaji Yakubu, disclosed this at the Arewa House, Kaduna State.
The group said that those in the north who are thinking that Tinubu will only serve one tenure, should have a rethink because the president is doing well and he should be allowed to serve for eight years just like his predecessor.
“Why will North stop President Tinubu? How can North stop him in 2027 after somebody from the North has done eight years? For us to have peace in this country, the North has no option, no alternative than to vote Tinubu for another second term, so that he can do eight years as well. What North should be thinking now is infrastructural and educational development.
“Considering the enormity of challenges facing the North now, it does not need political power now. We must put our house in order and tell each other the bitter truth. Insecurity challenges which we hoped that former President Muhammadu Buhari would have dealt with, got worse. That means political power has no value for the North.
“However, it is all about democracy and politics when people start angling to run for the presidency, probably to beat Tinubu to it. Everybody has the right to contest for any political position in the country. They have the rights as enshrined in our constitution to associate freely. They can go ahead and contest. For us at Arewa Think Tank, nobody can stop us from supporting the President. All we know is that he will be in power for eight years.
“We had a Northern President who stayed in power for eight years. So, there is no reason why we will not support President Tinubu for eight years. So far, he has done a lot of works across the country. I was watching the minister of works, David Umahi, saying that Abuja, Kaduna, Kano highways will be completed this year. This is very encouraging because the last administration in the last eight years could not fix it.
“And look at President Tinubu in less than one year in office, he is promising us that he will complete it. That is encouraging.
“So, all we need to do is to continue to support and pray for him. Like I earlier said at the initial take off of Tinubu’s government, we in the Arewa Think Tank, will give him one or one and half years before we start criticizing him.
“We want to give him some benefits of the doubt, we want to give him a breathing space because of the enormity of the challenges he inherited.
“It won’t be fair in less than one year to start criticizing him. If there is a need, there is a channel to reach him. But, for us to come out openly to criticize him, we need up to one or one and half years.
“Until he fails to work on those areas we advised him, that is when we will start to criticize him. But for the time being, we will support him and continue to pray for him.”
Speaking on why prayer was organized for Tinubu, Yakubu said: “This special prayer for President Bola Tinubu is because we are in a special month, and we are happy with what the President has been doing in the last nine months. We are doing this prayer to encourage him and we decided to do the prayer for him today in Arewa House because of its historical background.
“We want to tell the President that if the late premier of blessed memory was to be alive, he would in the spirit of fairness and equity support President Tinubu 100 percent.
“So, we want to take the advantage of the holy month for both Christians and Muslims to pray for the President because we have seen courage and capacity in him, and we have also seen political will in him.
“What we are doing here today is also part of our advice because he is doing well in tackling security and economic challenges.
“These are challenges that he inherited.”
