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The Presidency has said neither President Bola Tinubu nor the party to which he belongs, the All Progressives Congress, can build Nigeria alone.
It said building a Nigeria that works for over 200 million people requires the input of every citizen regardless of political affiliations.
The President’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, stated this in a 60-Minute Christmas Day Special Feature on Channels Television’s NewsNight which fully airs at 09:00 pm (local time) Monday, December 25, 2023.
In a two-minute teaser sighted by The PUNCH, Ngelale said “This is the nation we have to build and it’s not APC that will build it. It is not the PDP or Labour Party that will build it. It is Nigerians that will build it.
“So we need everybody and that’s the message. President Bola Tinubu needs every Nigerian to key into what he’s doing.
“This is not a partisan issue and we will not treat governance as a partisan issue so long as he is in authority.”
The interview would feature “Contentious Issues of 2023 under review with a prospectus ahead of 2024.”
The Presidential Spokesman also reasoned that Nigerians run the risk of “undermining” the country’s progress by spreading a narrative that wards off international support and cooperation.
He said, “We are all ambassadors of our country the moment we step outside. And how we communicate about ourselves and to ourselves, particularly on open platforms like Twitter, and Facebook, these things matter because people are watching us.
“Do we respect ourselves? Do we respect our country? People are watching us…We don’t want to undermine the work Mr. President is doing going around the world actively courting investment and securing investment, not just asking for it but getting it.
“We don’t want to undermine that by engaging in this self-fulfilling prophecy where we say, ‘things are so bad in Nigeria, Nigeria cannot be better’ or ‘Nigeria is a terrible place to be.’ We have to be mindful.”
According to him, with the elections and the litigations in the past, citizens should prioritise demanding good governance.
“I think we must get to a point where we understand when electioneering and the process of the campaign has ended and governance begins.
“At the point when governance begins when the court, for example, has settled litigation, we should be able to look at ourselves and say, ‘you know what, we can resume this battle again in two or three years. But for now, we have a mutual interest,” he stated.
The 60-minute Christmas Day Special Feature airs at 09:00 pm (local time) Monday, December 25, on Channels Television’s NewsNight.
