*At Nat Council of State meeting*Condemn protesters demanding military coup
By Chesa Chesa
Ex-Presidents Muhammadu Buhari and Goodluck Jonathan were in Aso Rock on Tuesday to attend the first National Council of State meeting convened by President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Joined virtually by former Heads of State, retired Generals Yakubu Gowon and Abdulsalami Abubakar, and Yakubu Gowon, the former leaders at the meeting passed a vote of confidence on President Tinubu, and condemned the recent #EndBadGovernance protests that took an insurrection dimension in some parts of the country
The Council of State is the highest advisory body of the federal government to the presidency on policymaking.
It comprises the President as chairman and Vice president as deputy chairman, all living former Heads of State and Presidents, all former Chief Justices of Nigeria, the President of the Senate, Speaker of the House of Representatives, all State Governors, the FCT Minister and the Attorney-General of the Federation as members.
Many of the Governors attended physically and few others joined virtually.
Briefing State House correspondents after the meeting, Kwara State Governor, Adburahman Abdurazak, who doubles as Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum, said: “The high note of the meeting was a unanimous passage of a vote of confidence on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu
“Members, especially those of the Nigerian Governor’s Forum, were satisfied with the presentation by the members of the Federal Executive Council, and after that meeting, there was an executive session between members of the forum and Mr President.
”Frank and fruitful discussions were held between both parties, and I’m glad to say we’re on the right track. Members of the NGF also, like the members of the Council of State, passed a vote of confidence on Mr President.”
Also addressing the press, Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, who was one of the Ministers invited to brief the Council, said the National Security Adviser NSA), Nuhu Ribadu, reported on the recent hunger protests across the country, which turned riotous in some places and some suspects were arrested for demanding a military coup, and foreign help to remove Tinubu from office.
Alake said “matters of state were discussed, in a robust manner and frank manner”, and the National Security Adviser talked about the last protests, “which I do not call a protest. I call a movement to effect a change of regime by force, which was also resisted”.
The Minister revealed that “the Council thanked Nigerians at large for resisting any unconstitutional move to change government. If anybody is not satisfied with the government, any current administration, there is always an election coming, so you wait for election and cast your vote.
“So, the NSA briefed the Council on the security situations, and allayed fears all round and spoke on the tightness of the security around the country, and also reassured all and sundry that nobody will be allowed to truncate our hard earned democracy.
“Any change of government has to be through the ballots and not through the barrel of the gun or through insurrection or through any other unconstitutional means. And he reassured on the security readiness of all security agencies in the country, to secure our territorial integrity and to protect Nigeria’s democracy.”
Other Ministers who briefed the Council were Minister of Budget, Minister of Works, Minister of Trade and Investment, and Minister of Agriculture and Minister of the Economy and the Finance Minister, Mr Wale Edun, who all made presentations on the progress being made in each sector of the economy.
Edun told journalists that rhe presentations were on macroeconomic policies being followed under the leadership of President Tinubu n his eight priority areas and “the results to date have been very encouraging”.
He added: “In broad terms, the economy is growing. The balance of payments, in particular, the trade balance and a current account balance are in surplus. The exchange rate is stabilizing, and inflation, though high, uncomfortably high for the liking of Mr president and his team, it is slowing and it is set to fall.
“But in particular, there has been support for the economy from investors, foreign investors, by way of portfolio investors, domestic investors, who are participating in important private public partnerships, particularly infrastructure sector and foreign direct investment, is beginning to recover, I would say so.
“On that basis, we reported on, in particular, the opportunities for the economy once stabilized for investment and growth, and identified for the meeting was the fact that we have exports, goods exports, Non oil exports, at $55 billion last year with tremendous room to grow.
“And in particular, we identified that the service sector that is software services, Computer Services, accounting services, personnel services, which can be provided by young Nigerians staying in Nigeria and providing services through the internet and through telephones, outsourcing in a world was a big area we emphasized.
“We reported that there was good progress being made that the effort was going to continue to ensure that the interventions and measures to ameliorate the high cost of living for individuals, for the agricultural sector, for industry, for small scale businesses, were going to continue to be implemented with all efforts needed for success.
“And on that basis, we we reported an optimistic outlook for the Nigerian economy and the Nigerian society in general, as a result of prospects for economic growth and economic progress.”
