President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has told Nigerians to be hopeful of good times ahead despite the pains they may be going through at the moment.
Tinubu gave the assurance in his first address to the nation on Monday, to mark the 2023 Democracy Day in honour of the late Chief MKO Abiola, the winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election.
Tinubu who acknowledged the hardship being faced by Nigerians in the aftermath of the fuel subsidy removal, said his administration will compensate these sacrifices with massive investment in key areas including “transportation infrastructural development, education, regular power supply, healthcare, and other public utilities that will improve their quality of life.”
According to the President, “the temporal discomfort occasioned by the subsidy removal was necessary to save the country from going under.”
“I feel your pain. This is one decision we must bear to save our country from going under and take our resources away from the stranglehold of a few unpatriotic elements.
“I admit that the decision will impose an extra burden on the masses of our people. Painfully, I have asked you, my compatriots, to sacrifice a little more for the survival of our country”.
Judicial reforms as ‘critical pillar of democracy’
The President also espoused on the importance of judicial reforms in order to strengthen the country’s democratic institutions and processes.
Tinubu said a vibrant judiciary is needed in order to ensure adherence to the rule of law.
“It is about rule of law and vibrant judiciary that can be trusted to deliver justice and strengthen institutions. It has become imperative to state here that the unnecessary illegal orders used to truncate or abridge democracy will no longer be tolerated. “The recent harmonization of the retirement age for judicial officers is meant to strengthen the rule of law, which is a critical pillar of democracy. The reform has just started.
“The democracy that will yield right dividends to the people who are the shareholders means more than just freedom of choice and right to get people into elective offices. It means social and economic justice for our people.”
He also stressed that the recently-concluded elections which were keenly contested was an evidence of the country’s strong democracy.
Tinubu also noted how politicians had sought redress at the courts in order to register their displeasure with the elections results, taking full advantage of their constitutional rights.
“That the polls were intensely contested is in itself positive evidence that democracy is well and alive in our land. It is only natural that even as those who won and experienced victory in the various elections are elated and fulfilled, those who lost are disenchanted and disappointed. But the beauty of democracy is that those who win today can lose tomorrow and those who lose today will have an opportunity to compete and win in the next round of elections.
“Those who cannot endure and accept the pain of defeat in elections do not deserve the joy of victory when it is their turn to triumph. Above all, those who disagree with the outcome of the elections are taking full advantage of the constitutional provisions to seek redress in court and that is one of the reasons why democracy is still the best form of government invented by man,” the president said.
President Tinubu however, acknowledged that “The abortion, by military fiat, of the decisive victory of Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola of the defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the June 12, 1993, presidential election, up to that time, the fairest and freest election in the country’s political evolution, turned out, ironically, to be the seed that germinated into the prolonged struggle that gave birth to the democracy we currently enjoy since 1999.
