Ondo State Governor, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, has urged President Bola Tinubu to focus on urgent priorities rather than distractions that could hinder the progress of the new administration.
According to him, key among the priorities is the need to bring on board individuals with proven expertise to help address the enormous tasks ahead. Akeredolu, in a congratulatory message personally signed by him, urged the President to take steps to neutralise those who seek to sow division and discord among Nigerians.
He emphasised that the success of fixing the basic defects in the 1999 Constitution, as amended, will determine the depth of deliberative governance and the pattern designed to achieve development, adding that with the move, essential issues will be addressed realistically.
He said: “As Nigeria takes yet another momentous step on her journey towards greatness, it behoves us to join all good people in the country, our friends and well-wishers from all over the world to celebrate this seamless transfer of power to a new set of elected leaders, at both the national and state levels.
“We must admonish ourselves on the need to remain focused on the socio-economic programmes for the emancipation of our people. This is not the time to gloat about the electoral victories recorded in the last general elections. It is definitely not the season for recriminations.
“The rhetoric, which conveys the divisive nuance of “we against them,” ought to have ceased with the declaration of the winners by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). This is the moment when all the new leaders must cast aside all tendencies that promote and deepen cleavages of different hues. All hands must be deployed on deck.
“The task ahead is so enormous as to warrant attending to frivolities capable of distracting the new administration. There must be conscious attempts to bring on board only those with proven capacity with regard to expertise.
“It is our duty to encourage the new government to tread honorable path. The new thinking should anticipate active participation by the constituent units of the federation as coordinate partners in revenue generation and security of lives and property of the citizenry.”
Akeredolu added that the Federal Government under the leadership of Tinubu must expect robust engagements from the government and people of Ondo State, who expressed confidence in the new leadership through what he described as the overwhelming support given the President at the last presidential election.
