President Muhammadu Buhari has urged the opposition politicians currently challenging the validity of the outcome of the 2023 general elections to accept the decisions of the judiciary.
The President in his farewell broadcast this morning attested to the victory of the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, stressing that he worked assiduously to fulfill his long time ambition of becoming the President by eventually winning the February Presidential polls.
While listing the conduct of free, fair and transparent polls as one of his major achievements in his eight-year administration, Buhari apologized to Nigerians for the pains caused by some of his policies.
On the cases in court, the President said “Irrespective of the outcome of the various cases, I urge all parties involved to accept the decision of our courts and join hands to build a better Nigeria.
“I salute the doggedness and resilience of all the Presidential Candidates and their political parties for believing in our judicial system by taking their grievances with the election results to court.
In the course of the campaigns, we had argued and disagreed on how to make Nigeria better but we never disagreed or had any doubts that Nigeria has to be better.
As your President, I call on all of us to bring to bear the strength of our individualism, the power of our unity, the convictions of our beliefs to make Nigeria work better and together with one spirit and one purpose.”
On Tinubu working for his victory, he said “To my brother, friend and fellow worker in the political terrain for the past ten years – Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu -, I congratulate you on the realisation of your dream, which was propelled by a burning passion to put Nigeria amongst the leading nations of the world.
You have indeed worked for this day and God has crowned your efforts. I have no doubt that your passion for excellence, reliance on competence, fairness in relationships, commitment to equity, loyalty to the country and desire for Nigeria to be globally relevant would come through for you, under God’s guidance, as you lead our country to levels higher that I am leaving.
“You are the best candidate among all the contestants and Nigerians have chosen well.”
Commenting on his legacy, he said “To ensure that our democracy remains resilient and our elected representatives remain accountable to the people, I am leaving behind an electoral process which guarantees that votes count, results are credible, elections are fair and transparent and the influence of money in politics reduced to the barest minimum. And Nigerians can elect leaders of their choice.
We are already seeing the outcome of this process as it provided an even playing field where persons without any political God-Father or access to money defeated other well-resourced candidates.”
While stressing that the nation’s economy has become more resilient with his policies, the President said “In the course of revamping the economy, we made some difficult choices, most of which yielded the desired results. Some of the measures led to temporary pain and suffering for which I sincerely apologised to my fellow countrymen, but the measures were taken for the over-all good of the country.”
Buhari who scored his administration high in the fight again insecurity and corruption, expressed the hope that his successor would build on his successes in the last eight years.
