PRESS RELEASE • OCTOBER 27, 2023
NADECO’S PRESS STATEMENT EMBARGOED FOR MONDAY, 30/10/2023
NADECO CONGRATULATES PRESIDENT BOLA TINUBU, GCFR, ON HIS CONFIRMATION AS PRESIDENT OF NIGERIA BY THE SUPREME COURT AND CALLS ON HIM TO ACT ON APC MANIFESTO AND EL-RUFAI PANEL RECOMMENDATIONS
1. The National Democratic Coalition, NADECO wishes to congratulate President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on his judicial victory confirmation by the Supreme Court of Nigeria in its October 26, 2023, verdict on the election petitions filed by political opponents against his declared victory by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC after the February 2023 presidential election.
2. NADECO wishes to restate that even though our preference was for the Nigerian State to first organise the necessary and desirable return to federal constitutional governance upon which Nigeria secured her independence, we are gratified that the partisan politicians have locked horns, campaigned, contested, won and lost election and have exhausted all the legal remedies available for whatever redress they deemed fit in the circumstances of the elections.
3. NADECO further wishes to state that NOW is the time to deliver the much-expected services in the socio-economic and political sphere through well-thought-out and rightly directed policies desirable to quickly alleviate the unacceptable level of suffering, poverty, economic misery and neglect to which Nigerians have been subjected by immediate past rulers and leaders, for many years now.
4. NADECO again restates for emphasis that while we strongly desire an immediate upliftment in the standard and quality of living of Nigerians, we expect much more than the necessary bread-and-butter economic gains.
5a. NADECO believes that the President Bola Tinubu Government must equally prioritise the process of implementing the APC manifesto, particularly in Article 7, pages 3, 7, 29, 37:
b. Under the aims and objectives of its article 7, the APC Constitution commits the party to, firstly, promote and foster the unity, political stability and national consciousness of the people of Nigeria, and secondly, to promote true federalism in the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
c. In the foreword to its vision for a New Nigeria (page 3, second paragraph), the APC Manifesto commits the party to ‘implement efficient public financial management strategies and ensure true federalism” as well as “restructure governance in a way that kicks starts our political economy so that we can begin to walk the path of our better future”. Also, in its manifesto (page 7), APC entered into an “Honest Contract” with Nigeria to create federalism with “more equitable distribution of national revenue to the states and local governments because this is where grassroots democracy and economic development must be established.”
d. In its Commitment to Restore Good Government (page 29, last paragraph), the APC Manifesto again stresses reliance on enhancing federalism through a two-pronged approach that consists of i) devolving control of policing and local prisons to the states and giving the right to nominate State Police Commissioners to Governors; and ii) Expanding the role of the Council of States to act as a consultation and negotiating forum between the federal and state governments to agree on joint economic and social initiatives.
e. Finally, under its promised Reforms and “a Government You Can Trust” (page 37, last paragraph), the APC Manifesto pledges to “devolve more revenue and powers to the states and local governments so that decision-making is closer to the people” and pledge to “bring the government closer to the people through political decentralisation, including local policing”.
f. The El-Rufai Committee’s Report recommended for a start the following, among others, that the APC government should take immediate steps to return Nigeria to federal constitutional governance upon which the country secured her independence;
Devolution of powers to State
Resource control
Making Local Government Affairs an affair of the states
