Bankole Taiwo, Abeokuta
The Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun has congratulated the president-elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) on the electoral victory of the party’s presidential candidate in the just concluded presidential poll.
The Governor equally felicitated all the elected National Assembly members on the platform of the APC, particularly in Ogun State, noting that the outcome of the elections has clearly shown that Nigerians are still in love with the party.
Tinubu was returned as the winner of the February 25, 2023 presidential election in the early hours of Wednesday by the Chief Returning Officer, Professor Mahmud Yakubu.
Abiodun, in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Kunle Somorin, on Wednesday, said that all the major parties ran a very fierce campaign in the build up to the February 25 elections, but the people finally spoke by electing Asiwaju Tinubu as the next President of Nigeria.
He added that now that the election is over, everybody must come together and chart a way forward for the country, saying that every hand must be on the deck to build a virile and more unified nation.
While hailing the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for conducting a free, fair and credible poll and allowing the will of the majority of Nigerians prevail, he charged members of the opposition to see and accept the result of the presidential election as the true wish of the people, as statesmen, democrats and in the spirit of sportsmanship.
“In every context, there will always be a winner and a loser, on a serious note, a perfect electoral process doesn’t exist anywhere in the world, even in the advanced democracy that has been around for so many years.
“The last election in America, we saw it, there were hiccups here and there, so we will continue to evolve and we will get better.
“This election has been adjudged as very peaceful, transparent, it has been adjudged by all as one of the best elections that we have had. Yes, there were a few issues here and there, but a winner has evolved, you can see that the political landscape has changed. We lost Lagos and yet, some people are complaining. This is democracy at work, congratulations to INEC for doing a fantastic job.
“The victory is for democracy and we all must join hands to fight the macabre quartet of disunity, economic doldrums, insecurity and bad politics. It is time for good governance. In Ogun State, for instance, we have been running an inclusive government and it’s time to replicate it at the national level.
“I have no doubt that Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the President-elect has solutions to most of the challenges keeping Nigeria down. It’s time we rekindled and renewed the hope for a better, prosperous and secure nation,” Abiodun was quoted to have said in the statement.
While congratulating the National Assembly members elected on the platform of the APC in Ogun, the Governor noted that the party’s track records in the delivery of good governance indeed worked for it and ensured that the party’s candidates won all the three senatorial seats and nine House of Representatives seats in the state.
He charged the Senator-elects and House of Reps-elects, to hold the public trust reposed in them in high esteem and be ready to offer quality representation at the National Assembly.
He further urged them to see their mandates as a social contract between them and their respective constituencies and senatorial districts, which must be honoured and followed to the letter.
He, however, thanked the people of Ogun for trusting in the party and his administration, assuring that more goodies of democracy will be witnessed in his second term in office.
Governor Abiodun, therefore, called on the residents and people of the state to sustain the wind of change in the development of the state by voting for the APC in the governorship and the House of Assembly elections scheduled to hold on March 11.
He said that as a promise-keeping party and administration, the APC and his government would continue to churn out people-oriented projects and policies with human face.