We’ll retrieve our mandate in A’Ibom, other states – Tinubu

Former Governor of Lagos State, Bola Tinubu, on Monday said the Action Congress of Nigeria would soon retrieve its “stolen” mandate in Akwa Ibom, Benue and Kwara states.
Tinubu, who stated this at a retreat for governors, and legislators-elect of the ACN in Lagos, said the party had strong cases to enable it to win back the three states.
He said, “The ACN today is clearly the fastest growing political party in Nigeria. We are in effective control of six states and constitute the most potent and viable opposition at the centre.
“And we have very strong cases to retrieve our stolen mandates in such states as Akwa Ibom, Benue and Kwara.”
He added that the conduct and outcome of the April general elections showed that Nigerians were becoming more politically sophisticated by the day.
He said that the citizens were becoming increasingly intolerant of mediocrity and non-performance in government.
The ACN national leader added that with enhanced transparency and credibility of the electoral process, parties and candidates could only retain political power by fulfilling their social contract to the satisfaction of the majority of the people.
He reminded the newly elected governors and legislators that politics was not a tea party and that the privilege of holding people’s mandate was a sacred trust.
Tinubu said, “The mandate cannot be squandered on mindless pleasure or reckless self-seeking. This is particularly so for members of a party like ours that stands for progressive change and radical modernisation of society.
“Achieving this objective will demand from our public office holders the most strenuous exertions of your physical, mental, psychological and moral resources to actualise the vision of the party and justify the trust of the people.”
The National Chairman of the ACN, Chief Bisi Akande, said that the colonisation of Nigeria which began with slave trade and other forms of economic exploitations had resulted in much delicate inter-communal resentment and distrust.
Akande said the situation had been compounded by Nigeria’s transition from agrarian feudal politics to a complex parasite economy under the political brotherhood of corruption.
“In Nigeria, political parties were formed by political leaders who attracted to themselves amalgams of different social, intellectual and occupational communities within every locality in the country. Of recent, most political position aspirants saw political parties as mere employment centres,” he said.
He said the induction training was to provide a forum to deliberate on why political parties in Nigeria should be regimented by legislation into a uniform candidate nomination approaches.
By Simon Utebor                Courtesy Of: Punch