By Chesa Chesa
President Bola Tinubu has vowed to keep promoting the rule of law, adhere to the principles of separation of powers, and tolerate dissenting views within the ambit of the laws of Nigeria.
This, he said, explains why since he assumed office, his administration had been making steady progress in rebuilding the nation through legal and judicial reforms.
The President made the vow on Sunday when he declared open the Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) in Lagos.
President Tinubu, who was represented at the event by Vice-President Kashim Shettima, acknowledged the association’s sterling history of championing democratic ideals, as well as promoting the rule of law.
“Let me reassure you all that this administration will continue to promote the rule of law, adherence to the principles of separation of powers and tolerance of dissent within the bounds of the law,” he declared.
The President implored Nigerian lawyers and other citizens to join hands with his administration in resolutely working towards a Nigeria of everybody’s dreams, saying the nation cannot continue to toe the path threaded in the past, if it must achieve sustainable development.
He assured that though making difficult decisions to change the way things were being done in the past would produce hard results, his administration’s policies and actions will bring relief to Nigerians very soon.
President Tinubu noted: “While I acknowledge the temporal existence of some daunting challenges besetting us as a nation, I would like to urge you all not to adopt a defeatist approach; rather, we should remain resolute in working for a country of our dreams.
“It is obvious that Nigeria as a nation cannot continue to sojourn on the trajectory of the past if we must be assured of sustainable development; hence, the need to sanitize the Augean stable and chart a proper course of rebuilding the nation.
“I acknowledge that altering the status quo requires difficult decisions and changes, which also inevitably come with hard outcomes. However, I am confident that this is a passing phase and our policies and actions, as an administration, are bound to usher in relief in no distant time.”
The President thanked the Supreme Court for consistently sustaining good governance and the tenets of democracy in Nigeria, citing the recent verdict of the highest court in the land which granted financial autonomy to the local government councils.
The judgment, he noted, “will spur the much-desired developments at the grassroots level,” even as he expressed confidence “that more of such strategic and reform-oriented legal interventions will be achieved” by the third arm of government.
On the part of the executive arm, President Tinubu restated his administration’s commitment to continue making the welfare of the judiciary a top priority of his administration.
