ACF chieftain, Yakassai, tells Tinubu to ignore calls for govt of national unity

A chieftain of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), Tanko Yakassai, on Wednesday warned the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, not to succumb to pressure from politicians asking him to form a unity government.

Some political figures including the former governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi, had shortly after the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Tinubu as the winner of last Saturday’s presidential election urged him to form a government of national unity involving a broad coalition of all major parties in the country.

They argued that the formation of such unity government would douse the post-election tension and assuage frayed nerves in the country.

Yakassai, who addressed journalists at his residence in Abuja, countered the argument.

He warned that such arrangement would not augur well for the country.

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He said: “No, I won’t advise Tinubu to run any government of national unity. I want democracy to develop. Democracy is a business of competition.

“Repeal competition from democracy, you have killed democracy. Let everybody come with his own programme.

“After all, the electorate voted for him. Let him put his programme into action. And where he concludes his own part, let the man coming after him build from where the previous man stopped. This is how you develop a country.

“And, in fact, this is how this house we are staying was built. They did the foundation, after then structure, vanishing of the house, painting and the rest of them. That is how you practice democracy.

“This is how it should also be done in nation building. It is what people all over the world are doing and this is what we should be doing.”

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