The Director General of Micheal Imoudu National Institute for Labour Studies, Ilorin, North Central Nigeria, Comrade Issa Aremu says with the Supreme Court’s judgement that affirmed President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress APC as the winner of the 2023 Presidential election,
Nigeria has shown the strength of democracy in Nigeria.
According to him, like any other election, there will be disputes, but what is important is that Nigerians have the process to resolve the disputes.
Comrade Aremu who was reacting to the Supreme Court judgement, commended the judiciary for painstakingly listening to the complainants and at the same time defendants, coming out with the judgement which has shown that the nations democratic process has come of age.
…There is no alternative to this process, the alternative is unthinkable, it is not an alternative, where we have violent, chaos, but now we have the court process.
“But let me say that this is now the time for statesmanship, and I want to appreciate President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in a statement on the judgment, by calling on all Nigerians including those of the other parties to come on board so that they can pursue the agenda for national development,” he said.
According to him, the lesson of the President’s statement is to have good governance and there cannot be good governance if all hands are not on deck stressing that politics is over now, it is now time for good governance.
Comrade Aremu called on the other candidates, who went to court, to also display the same statesmanship, stressing that, one good turn deserves another.
“Now that Supreme Court has spoken, we should salute or congratulate the winners and of course, winners too must show sign of friendship to the opponents. I think we are all winners as long as democracy is working.
I have no doubt in mind, that other candidate; they are tested statesmen, former governor, former vice president, they know what it takes for them to reciprocate the good gesture of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu that it is now time to make the country work and the 8-point agenda has enough space for all of us, I mean we have food security, job creation, fighting insecurity, these are not partisan issues, they are issues that cuts across parties,” he stated.
Comrade Aremu declared that on the whole, it shows that Nigerian democracy has come of age as there will always be those who win and those who may think they will win.
He stated that the only way to resolve this, is not through fighting nor being violent, but go to courts and the courts has also shown that they are capable of giving judgements.
“In some of the judgments at the state level, there are some that have won before, judges have reversed them and some are on appeal.
“Democracy is working and on the last note, I look forward to the time when elections will end at the points of counting votes at the level of INEC. We should also make the point that judiciary is not meant to be counting votes or to be checking records of contestants, it is the job of Independent Electoral Commission (INEC).
They have tried, but there are challenges. We will get there in the way which elections, once it is concluded, there is no need to go the way of litigation and you can see in Kwara State, in the last election, it was free and fair that everybody moved on, at least with respect to the governorship election.
Comrade Aremu said all the parties involved should stop personalising the elections result, but should look towards the aspect of nation building.
Lateefat Ibrahim
