An opposition Senator in the National Assembly has said that he would support President Bola Tinubu to ensure delivery of good governance regardless of their political differences.
Aliero, who led two other Senators from Kebbi State, including Sen. Yahaya Abdulahi and Sen. Garba Maidoki to a meeting with the President on Wednesday at the Presidential Villa said politics was over and all hands must be on deck to ensure good governance.
Asked whether he was wooed by the President to move to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), the former Kebbi State governor said “We are prepared to give Mr President all the support he requires to ensure that this country is governed well, despite our political differences.
“I will stop at that because we’re not talking about politics now, we’re talking about governance and it is governance that just brought up here in the Presidential Villa.”
Speaking specifically on why they were at the Villa, Aliero said “We’re at the Presidential Villa on a friendly visit, to express our deep and profound appreciation to Mr President for flagging off the Sokoto-Badagry Road.
This is a road that has been on the drawing board for the last 48 years, successive administrations have failed to do it and the President has taken the bull by the horn by not only unveiling the construction of this road, but also flagging off it within a very short period of time.
“He was represented by the Governor of Kebbi State, Dr Nasiru Idris, and we understand that the contractor had already been mobilized to the extent of getting over 30% of the total contract sum.
“This is one road that is so important to the entire northern Nigeria because it will reduce the number of hours of traveling from Sokoto to Lagos to just about six hours.
“Now, trailers do spend close to about two days with their vehicles. Normal vehicles, whether it is Mercedes, Peugeot or what have you, you spend close to about 16 hours before you reach Sokoto.
“But with the construction of this road, it will only take you five to six hours to reach Sokoto and Kebbi respectively.
“So the people of Northwest Zone and North-central Zone are particularly grateful to Mr. President for flagging-off the construction of this road.
“This is the road that the military government of President Olusegun Obasanjo started, but it was scuttled during the Second Republic because of differences between politicians.
“We’re happy today the dream has come true. We are eternally grateful to the President once more.
“In addition to that, just last week, the Federal Executive Council approved the construction of over three federal roads in Kebbi. We are also very grateful to Mr President and that’s why we find it necessary to come and express our appreciation.
“In addition to that, Mr. President has taken a number of initiatives to ensure that insecurity, banditry, in particular, is a thing of the past in Kebbi State.
“The Police, the Army, the Air Force, have done quite a lot and we urge Mr President to do more.
“We need security to be beefed up in that area because this is harvesting period, we don’t want farmers to be harassed. We want farmers to have good harvest.
“As you all know, there is bumper harvest this year and we don’t want a situation where bandits will come and start burning crops. That will be an exercise in futility if it happens.
“So, Mr President has assured us that more measures will be taken to ensure security of lives on property, not only in Kebbi, but the whole of Nigeria.
“Equally important is the issue of power. For the last five to six days, some parts of Northern Nigeria have been without electricity.
“Some states have been in darkness for about five days. Mr President assured us that measures are being taken to ensure the restoration of power supply in the whole of Nigeria.
We are very grateful for what we had. Even yesterday, we engaged the Minister of Power.
