The pan Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere has commended the Inspector General of Police (IGP) and the United States government for warning all those who might be thinking of or planning to disrupt the inauguration of the President-elect, Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu, on 29th May.
In a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Comrade Jare Ajayi, Afenifere asserted that the journey to the present democratic dispensation has been hectic “thus, nothing should be done to truncate it”.
Since the presidential election on 25th February and the declaration of Tinubu as its winner, various efforts have been made to prevent the 29th May inauguration. Some even advocated for an Interim Government, which has been largely condemned.
Apart from the statement made by the vice presidential candidate of Labour Party, Dr. Datti Baba-Ahmed, who spoke along that line, the chairman of a non-governmental organisation, Dr. Simon Okeke recently asserted that inauguration of the President-elect “might be an open invitation for anarchy”. To him, all cases in the court in respect of the election must be settled before the inauguration is made.
Afenifere spokesman recalled that the Department of State Security and the military confirmed the move to scuttle the scheduled inauguration and warned those who may be contemplating such.
Four residents of the Federal Capital Territory, led by one Mr. Ayanegbunam Ubala Okoye, are presently in court to use the legal process to stop the inauguration. There had been other clandestine efforts along the same line, which led to the issuance of warning by the Defence Headquartes to those it described as “unscrupulous politicians”, who were bent on disrupting the hand-over process.
The Inspector General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba; and the United States Secretary of State, Mr. Antony J. Blinken also issued strong warnings against any untoward move.
Blinken had announced the plan by the United States “to impose visa restrictions on specific individuals in Nigeria for undermining the democratic process during Nigeria’s 2023 elections cycle”. The visa ban will also affect “those believed to be responsible for, or complicit in, undermining democracy” in Nigeria, according to Blinken.
Afenifere praised the security agencies and the United States government on their stand to ensure that no one, no matter how highly placed, prevents Tinubu’s inauguration as President. The organisation appealed to all those who are aggrieved to be patient and allow the legal process they had already initiated to take its normal course.
Afenifere seized the opportunity to caution the outgoing government of President Muhammadu Buhari to have a rethink on the $800 million facility it is securing from the World Bank for the provision of palliatives because “it would be adding more to the already huge debt burden presently put at over N77 trillion according to the government-owned Debt Management Office”.
The World Bank had said that Nigeria spent 96.3 per cent of its revenue on debt servicing last year, although the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed claimed that only 80.6 per cent of the country’s revenue was spent on debt servicing that year.
Ajayi, who recalled that Nigeria’s debt burden in 2015 when President Buhari came to power was N12.6 trillion but is now hovering around N80 trillion, described the “undesirable development as regrettable in view of so much infrastructural deficit, cut-throat insecurity and economic dislocation that are ravaging the land”.
He expressed the hope and confidence that, in spite of such debt profile, the in-coming administration would be able to meet the high expectations of Nigerians and bring the country back from the precipice.
