By Elohor Igbru
Should he win the 2023 presidential election, the presidential flagbearer of the All Progressive Congress (APC) would be making history as the first non-military aligned president of Nigeria. An elder statesman, Alhaji Tanko Yakasai, who hailed the emergence of Bola Tinubu as the presidential candidate of the APC has said.
In a congratulatory message on Thursday, Yakasai said history will be made if Tinubu emerges as the president of the country.
The elder statesman said Tinubu’s emergence as president would signify “the total break away” from military influence in Nigeria’s polity.
He said, “The election of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the APC Presidential Bearer is indeed an important political development in our country. This transition will lead us to a full-pledged democracy, a milestone of an acclaimed figure and political Juggernaut of the APC National Leader to a National Leader of Nigeria.
“When Asiwaju, a sage, is eventually elected as the President of the country in the forthcoming Presidential Elections, history shall be made in our contemporary political development for a number of reasons.
“Paramount and if elected as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Asiwaju’s election victory will signify the complete and total break away from military influence in our polity which will bring about the return of the country to a full pledge democratic tradition and practice for the first time since the return of civilian rule in 1999.
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“It will also constitute a stamp of validation of the 1914 amalgamation of the people of Northern and Southern protectorates by the entire people of Nigeria of their own free will. It is gratifying to note that this is the first time the major Political Parties are fielding non-military actors as their Presidential standard-bearers.
“Therefore it is important to appeal to all candidates vying for various political positions in the country to commit themselves to the principles of playing politics according to the rule of the game, eschew politics of bitterness, violence and do away with the culture of thuggery in our political activism and return the country to the path of civility in the conduct of partisan politics.
“May their emergence be the harbinger of the return to politics of decorum, without bitterness as well as the beginning of the arduous task of finding a better strategy that will enhance the needed national unity, peaceful coexistence and cohesion in our country a prerequisite for genuine nation-building.
“I pray that the coming general elections will be conducted in a peaceful atmosphere free from violence. It is our hope that the National Electoral Commission will conduct the election in a peaceful, credible manner devoid of rigging and manipulation.”
