The President, Nigerian Baptist Convention, Rev. Dr. Israel Akanji has begged the President-elect, Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu of All Progressive Party (APC) to ensure an all-inclusive government when he takes over power from President Muhammadu Buhari on May 29.
Rev. Akanji, led this out while addressing newsmen at the National Convention of the Baptist Convention, at Baptist International Convention Centre, Lufuwape town, along Lagos-Ibadan expressway, noted that the incoming administration should take cognizance of geographical, religious, and ethnic balance of the country.
He said, “I will request of him to make his government admirable by deploying his wealth of experience to handling the perennial issues of our great country”.
“When in office fully, the new President must ensure an all-inclusive government, taking cognizance of geographical, religious, and ethnic balance; alleviation of poverty, development of infrastructure, especially roads, power, hospitals and education; provision of employment and assurance of security in our Nigeria”.
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“I believe the President-elect is fully aware of how some of our best brains are dumping their jobs in Nigeria in search of greener pastures in the Western world”.
“We believe that with some intentionality to curb this trend, the federal government can devise means of ensuring that these our God-given brilliant Nigerians are retained to serve their fatherland, which they love dearly”.
He added, “Nigerians are good people if the leaders show the right example. The new President must take advantage of the goodwill of Nigerians to ensure that mistakes of various past leaders become raw materials to provide our country the best leadership possible”.
“Policies to be adopted must be with human face. Leadership must be conscious of the hardships which accompany policies that are hurriedly and unpreparedly made for a big country such as Nigeria”.
“For instance, in the recent case of the Naira redesign, while the idea might have been good, there were visible signs of unpreparedness for the steps that were taken, which brought a lot of hardship to Nigerians. Such approaches must be carefully avoided in the future and leadership must be constantly responsive to the cries of the masses”.
Fighting the challenge of insecurity facing the country, Rev. Akanji said, this demands holistic approach, that must come from the very top of the leadership of the nation.
“In tackling insecurity, I’ll want to counsel our new president to look at areas where the current administration did not engage concerning the insecurity situation and ensure that those areas are blocked. The inadequacies of the previous administrations should become like raw materials for the new president to use in engaging the situation. Where there are inadequate ammunitions for our security men, the federal government should ensure that modern and sophisticated weapons are provided”.
He equally challenged Nigerians to support the security agencies by identifying criminal element in their various communities.
Speaking on the call for interim government, Rev. Akanji lamented that those calling for the interim government are trying to take us back.
“I counsel that Nigeria should not go for an interim government. It will be too wasteful. All of the election we did, we will start all over again. I believe that the person elected, has a lot of experience and he can do well. The only thing to do, is to encourage him, to be inclusive and not to be segregational. He should ensure that he brings everybody to the table, from the North, East, South and West of Nigeria, Christians and Muslims, all of them should be brought to the table”.
