Former national chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Adebisi Akande on Thursday, May 30, said that there were serious spiritual threats and political maneuvering to stop the inauguration of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu as Nigeria’s president ahead of May 29, 2023.

Speaking in Kaduna as the chairman of a one-day lecture organised by Arewa Think Tank, to celebrate one year of achievements of the administration of President Tinubu, the elder statesman however said: “The tension and threats generated in the country by the opposition with the view to deny Tinubu the presidential victory in the Presidential election were not surprising.”

Chief Akande said this was because the opposition had even before independence never wanted a united country, pointing out that, “Since 1953, when a motion for Independence was first moved in parliament by Chief Tony Enahoro, our polity has been moving from tensions of one threat to another that Nigeria must not be allowed to continue as one and united country.”

According to Akande, “Towards the last elections, the prophecy was thick that Bola Ahmed Tinubu would not become the APC candidate, he did become. Religious clerics of one belief and the other became sleepless for him not to win the presidential elections, he won!

“Thereafter, spiritual threats and political maneuvering began that he would not be inaugurated as a Nigerian president, he assumed the presidency! The battle then shifted to the judicial sword-crossing that he should be removed from the presidency, his presidency was upheld! Other predictions were that he would have no health to manage the office, but he remained divinely healthy.

“Then the agitation that Nigeria would not survive his political agenda, Nigeria has been waxing stronger and stronger as one and united country! One Nigeria is a major part of what we are now celebrating.

“I was the pioneer national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) – the great political party that produced the President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu whose one-year administrative anniversary was being officially celebrated for over a week up to yesterday.

“I am therefore particularly convinced that Nigeria will forever continue to be sustained as a more peaceful, more developed, more progressive and a more prosperous country under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and beyond.

“I urge all of us to be thinking about how to sustain a united, peaceful and prosperous Nigeria. May our collective and individual aspirations within a better and most respectable Nigeria be divinely realised.

The theme of the lecture was, “Our Diversity, Our Strength”, which was delivered by the Guest Speaker, the governor of Benue State, Rev. Father Hyacinth Alia, while Kaduna State Governor, Uba Sani was the Chief Host of the event.

Rev. Father Alia, stressed the need for Nigeria’s unity, saying that, “our religions should not be a dividing factor to us.”

He added that Nigeria as a country must not fail as its failure would negatively affect the entire Africa, as a continent.

“We should not take our diversity for granted, our diversity should be our power, strength, and unifying force that holds us together as one people. Diversity should not be a source of conflict and tension, it should rather build a more robust and prosperous Nigeria. If Nigeria fails as a nation, the entire countries in Africa will fail.

“Tinubu has brought hope of unity irrespective of our differences in religion, ethnicity, and social status, and he stepped up progress or otherwise on infrastructure, education, health, agriculture, and every possible parameter of social engineering”, Governor Alia said.

On his part, the Chief Host and governor of Kaduna State, Uba Sani, also harped on the unity of Nigerians, saying that with unity of purpose, Nigeria and Nigerians would achieve the desired peace and progress.

He added that it was only when Nigerians come together as one that “there will be peace.”

He continued that President Bola Tinubu meant well for the country despite the current hardship occasioned by the removal of subsidy on oil and other policies of the current administration.

Going down memory lane, the governor said President Tinubu was one of those who fought for the enthronement of the current democracy, noting that Tinubu was one of the financiers of the pro-democracy movement at the period Nigerians wanted the military to leave for democracy to thrive.

Sani, therefore, urged Nigerians to support the President because he (Tinubu) holds Nigerians and Nigeria high.

Earlier, in his opening remarks, the Chief Convener Arewa Think Tank, Muhammad Alhaji Yakubu informed that: “The objective of the event is aimed at strengthening and encouraging the ‘Renewed Hope Agenda’ of President Bola Tinubu which has several laudable brilliant layers linked to foreign investment drive, energizing the health sector, making education affordable for the poor and underserved, delivering good governance amidst debt burden, social and economic transformation, driving peace and religious harmony, as well as measures to combat rural banditry and insecurity across the country.

“The one-year stewardship of President Tinubu has recorded remarkable and impressive achievements in many aspects of governance considering the level of mismanagement and unfavourable security situation he inherited from the previous administration. As such, it behoves all patriotic citizens to support him, especially ‘his cabinet ministers and appointees to achieve greater successes necessary to propel the effectiveness, efficiency, and sustainability in governance and development that will ensure peace, progress, and unity of the country.” (The Nation: Text, Excluding Headline)