The APC Stakeholders Forum (APC-SF) has commended the Tribune Titles for its coverage of the last general elections in the country saying the paper maintained its neutrality during the coverage of the polls.
The Forum stated this when its Board of Trustees (BoT), chairman and members paid a courtesy visit to the Abuja Corporate Office of the Tribune newspapers on Friday.
Led by its BoT chairman, Colonel Abdulmumuni Aminu retd), a former military governor of Borno State, the APC-SF commended the role of the media especially Tribune for its role in stabilising the polity and the success of the electoral process.
The retired military officer revealed that the Forum will be organising a national prayer for the unity of the nation and for the success of the incoming administration devoid of any political, religious, or tribal sentiments. He also added that they will be presenting awards to some governors of APC extraction who stood their ground that power must shift to the south despite pressures from everywhere.
“Our forum intends to follow that victory (of the President-elect and the party) by having an event next week Saturday and which will be held at the Presidential Villa. The event will be national prayer for the unity of the nation and for the success of the incoming administration. We are not talking about political party, religion, or which section you belong, we are talking about Nigeria.
“So all Nigerians should come and pray for the success of the new administration. I, for one, by virtue of my profession, respect and support any government of the day and that is how every Nigerian should do because without that there won’t be progress.
“Your media house (Tribune) played a major role to stabilise this country because if things have been overheated, I know I won’t be here talking about Nigeria or what has happened before.
“We have come to appreciate you and see that on that day we are going to award some dignitaries of the APC who contributed immensely to the success of the party especially the six northern governors who stood their ground that power must shift to the south.
“We commend their sacrifice for the success of this country. We must run away from religious, tribal and sectional sentiments and this is the beginning to the end of such sentiments. We have seen what had happened. We could see that the pattern of the election didn’t bring follow tribal or sectional sentiments as such though you can never eliminate it completely.
“But you (Tribune) played a major role that made that possible and also some of our northern governors who insisted that power must shift from the north to the south and insisted on a particular person and it happened by the grace of Almighty Allah.
“We have known Tribune for a long time. It is a long-existing and respected paper in this country. Your works make a lot of impact and that is the reason we are visiting you so that you can help us in our mission to unite this country and support the incoming government and also for peaceful coexistence in this country. We cannot do it without you. Without unity of purpose, we cannot go anywhere. We are ready to partner with Tribune to advance the progress of this country.
“Nigeria is greater than any group or individuals. We talk about Indian, Indonesia, Malaysia and rest of them. We were at par at one time now they have taken a lot of miles and they are now ahead of us. We should be focused now and be steadfast not just to catch them but to overtake them. We have everything at our disposal in this country the only problem is that unity of purpose that is missing. That is the missing link. Once we get that right every other thing will fall into places.”
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