Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has described President Bola Tinubu’s inaugural statement to the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) as credible because it affirmed democracy as the best form of government.
The UN correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Nigerian leader had on Tuesday called on world leaders to affirm democratic governance as the best guarantor of the sovereign will and well-being of the people.
According to him, military coups are wrong as is any tilted civilian political arrangement that perpetuates injustice and that the wave crossing parts of Africa does not demonstrate favour towards coups.
Sanwo-Olu told journalists in New York that Tinubu was able to proffer a solution, saying a democratic process is still the best option as best guarantor of the sovereign will of the people.
“It set the tone for Nigeria to stake its own space in a global arena like in the United Nations, but also be able to project that, yes, everything is not perfect with us here but we are on a path of economic recovery.
“We are on the path of ensuring that the renaissance of Africa is not lost and that the world should be able to carry Africa along and let us, indeed, give Africa its fair share, its fair place in global politics and in the economic agenda of the world.
“I believe it was a very credible outing for him. We believe there’s a lot more that will come in from our president, and year-on-year, I believe it will probably just be getting better and better as he shows up,” he said.
In addition, he said the president’s statement demonstrated true statesmanship and he was able to personally put forward his view of what a new Africa should look like.
“He was also able to analyse the issues concerning Africa, West Africa and Nigeria.
“I believe, being his first outing, he demonstrated that Nigerians have actually chosen well, to be present at this point in time.
“He was not only defining what the role Nigeria will play, but was also putting Africa on the world map in expressing that even with global challenges, that the entire world needs to be able to listen and watch the opportunities that abound in Africa,” he said.
According to him, Africa has been the “whipping boy” but Africa has been unfairly treated, and that Africa is the untapped future resource of the entire world.
“And he was able to put that forward to say that the world needs to listen and watch the potential that Africa presents.
“And he was able to put that forward to say that the world needs to listen and watch, you know, the potential that Africa presents.
“And he was also able to take it further, to all of the issues we have in West Africa, you know with coups and counter coups and the rest of it, that is not fashionable.
“It is so undemocratic, but he was not trying to run himself over any of these countries,” he said.
The governor said the president’s speech spoke to the importance of collaboration.
“They need to dialogue to be able to reverse that very unfortunate trajectory that we’re seeing coming out in Africa, where coups are becoming the order of the day,” he said.