26th October, 2023
By Fatima Mohammed-Lawal
Mr Issa Aremu, the Director General of Micheal Imoudu National Institute for Labour Studies, Ilorin, has advised Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of Labour Party (LP) to embrace statesmanship.
Aremu gave the advice on Thursday in Ilorin during an interview with newsmen in reaction to the Supreme Court judgment that affirmed President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of the 2023 presidential election.
He observed that the judgment showed Nigeria and its people are a democracy destination.
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.
Aremu commended the judiciary for painstakingly listening to the complainants and at the same time defendants, coming out with the judgment which has shown the fact that the nation’s 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 violence, 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 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.
He observed that 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.
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,” he said.
The director general submitted that it is now time to make the country work, adding that the eight-point agenda, including food, security, job creation, fighting insecurity, are not partisan issues, but are issues that cuts across parties.
Aremu declared that on the whole, it showed that Nigerian democracy has come of age as there will always be those who win and those who may think they will win.
He added that the only way to resolve this, is not through fighting, violence, but go to courts and the courts had also shown that they are capable of giving judgments.
He observed that some of the judgments were at the states level, while some have won before, however 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),” he said.
“On the whole, we should stop this personalisation, what we need is to build the nation,” Aremu urged. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)