By Abdallah el-Kurebe
Sokoto governor, Aminu Tambuwal has told President Muhammadu Buhari, to ensure that he bequeathed a sustainable democratic system, that is imbued with workable institutional structures, to stand the test of time.
The governor made the call against the backdrop of a remark by one of Buhari’s men, Alhaji Ismaila Isa Funtua on Friday in Lagos, at the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Silverbird Group.
According to a statement by the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to Tambuwal, Bello Muhammad, Funtua allegedly admitted that something was going wrong in the country.
In reaction to Funtua’s alleged statement, the Governor said Buhari should leave a legacy that he would be remembered for.
“Before he came to power in 2015, I was one of those that had respect and admiration for him. I had my expectation like so many other Nigerians, who are very patriotic and committed to the course of democracy and good governance in this country,” Tambuwal said.
The governor, who received Silverbird’s ‘Man of the Year’ award asked: “But can we say so in 2019? In 2019 general elections, we knew what happened. Is that the legacy that President Muhammad Buhari wants to leave?”
Tambuwal pointed out that the had a departure point in 2023, he urged Nigerians to “make sure that our institutions are working,” adding that “we don’t need strong men in Nigeria. We need strong institutions.
Narrating his ordeal in the political arena thus far, the governor enumerated some of the institutional defects threatening democratic stability in the country as the introduction of a ‘new lexicon’ known as ‘inconclusive’ into the electoral system, travesty of justice, brazen use of the elements of coercion to prosecute elections conductors and insecurity.
“We as practitioners in politics know what we are doing. We should know that, first, there is God. We are supposed to respect the voting rights of our citizens. We must not continue to manipulate our ways to power and we must desist from attempts to emasculate our judicial system.
“What we need to do is to make sure that we reform our electoral system and allow the system to exercise the franchise, conduct free, fair election and whoever wins should be so declared. We should allow the votes to count.
“We should allow the security personnel to go and face the real challenges that we have in Nigeria. Not that when we have elections they will fly people to Kogi, Bayelsa, Osun; leaving behind people in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe, allowing Boko Haram to be traversing the length and breadth of the country.
“We should be able to tell ourselves the truth. So far, nothing is wrong with our system. It is not about the law, it is about the managers of the system. We must be conscious of the fact that we will go back to God almighty one day and we shall be accountable to Him of our deeds,” Tambuwal stressed.
He expressed optimism that the country have resources both the human and natural to ensure that things work properly, he said “what is lacking is sincere, committed and patriotic devotion’ on the part of the leadership.”
