Tinubu charges elected officials on dedication

Former Governor of Lagos State and leader of the Action Congress of Nigeria, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has advised all elected office holders to live up to expectation in their various callings as they take oaths of office today.

Tinubu, who congratulated President Goodluck Jonathan and other elected officials, cautioned that there were great tasks ahead of them.

In a release titled ‘Celebrating democracy’s steady progress in Nigeria’ dated May 28 and signed by Tinube, he said, “It is of critical importance for all those chief executives taking their oaths of office to realise that this is another opportunity to utilize democracy as a vehicle for aggressively combating poverty and promoting rapid socio-economic development of the country. This is the best way to endear democracy to the generality of Nigerians.”

He maintained that pursuant to the conduct of the April poll which was adjudged as fair, free and credible, there was hope that the culture of democracy was steadily taking roots.

Tinubu congratulated the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Professor Attahiru Jega, and advised the INEC Chairman to address what he described as internal systemic weaknesses in the commission which was exploited by those he described as unscrupulous politicians during the last elections.

He said, “As we take another critical step forward towards the consolidation of democracy in Nigeria, I congratulate our fellow country men and women whose resilience, commitment, determination and patriotism are substantially responsible for the progress we have made thus far in this political dispensation.

“Even as we continually strengthen the institutions of democracy, it is also imperative that all stakeholders in the political process adopt attitudes capable of sustaining stable democratic governance.”