We won’t allow anybody to truncate democracy, NSA warns at briefing to Council of State

By Egena Sunday Ode

The National Security Adviser, NSA, Nuhu Ribadu, has warned that the security agencies will not tolerate any attempt, overt or covert, to truncate the nation’s democracy.

Minister of Solid Minerals Resources, Dele Alake, disclosed this while briefing newsmen on the outcomes of the National Council of State, NCS, meeting held on Tuesday at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa, Abuja.

According to him, the NSA made the declaration while briefing members of the Council at a meeting presided over by President Bola Tinubu at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa, Abuja on Tuesday.

He said the NSA reassured Council of the readiness of the security agencies to defend the territorial integrity of the country as well as its democracy.

Alake quoted Ribadu to have warned that any change of government should be through the ballot box and not otherwise, noting that the Council thanked Nigerians for not allowing any attempt to forcefully change government.

“And of course, at the end of it, matters of state were discussed, in a robust manner and frank manner. And the National Security Adviser also was on hand to present the security situation of the country.

“And he did inform the Council of State about the pre, during and post event of the last protests, which I do not call a protest. I call it a movement to effect a change of regime by force, which was also resisted.

“And so, you know, the council thanked Nigerians at large for resisting any unconstitutional move to change government, if anybody is not satisfied with the government, any current administration, there is always an election coming, so you wait for election and cast your vote.

“So the NSA briefed the Council on the security situations, and allayed fears all round.

“So after the NSA’s briefing, generally, he allayed everybody’s fears and spoke on the tightness of the security around the country, and also reassured all and sundry that nobody will be allowed to truncate our hard earned democracy.

“Any change of government has to be through the ballots and not through the barrel of the gun or through insurrection or through any other unconstitutional means, only through the ballot box can any government be changed. And he reassured on the security readiness of all security agencies in the country, to secure our territorial integrity and to protect Nigeria’s Democracy,” Alake said.

He also disclosed that seven ministers were invited to brief the Council on the blue prints of their ministry with a view to shoring up the economy.

“And some of us ministers who are invited to make presentations on our road map on what we’ve been able to achieve, the prospects and the challenges in our various ministries. And so myself, the Solid Minerals, coordinating Minister of the Economy and the finance minister, Mr Wale Edun was also there to make presentation. The Minister of Budget was also there he made his presentation. The Minister of works also made presentation, the Minister of Trade and Investment. Dr Doris was also there. The Minister of Agriculture also was invited.

“So these seven of us ministers made individual presentations to the council of state meeting, and our presentations were well received from the feedback that we got immediately after individual presentations,” Alake said.

Also speaking at the briefing, Minister of Finance and the Coordinating Minster of the Economy, Wale Edu disclosed that the ministers had the opportunity to update Council members on the economy.

He said: “We did have the opportunity and the privilege to present to the Council of State, and in particular the former presidents, who turned out in a large number to participate, and we had the opportunity to, in my case, update them on the economy, update them on how far progress had been made in terms of the macroeconomic policies being followed under the leadership of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and these policies are anchored in his eight priority areas and the results to date have been very encouraging.

“We looked at the data, or we reported on the evidence and the data of this half year for which data was available, compared to the first quarter and The second quarter of 2023. And in broad terms, the economy is growing. The balance of payments, in particular, the trade balance and a current account balance are in surplus. The exchange rate is stabilizing, and inflation, though high, uncomfortably high for the liking of Mr president and his team, it is slowing and it is set to fall.

“But in particular, there has been support for the economy from investors, foreign investors, by way of portfolio investors, domestic investors, who are participating in important private public partnerships, particularly infrastructure sector and foreign direct investment, is beginning to recover, I would say so.

“On that basis, we reported on, in particular, the opportunities for the economy once stabilized for investment and growth, and identified for the meeting was the fact that we have exports, goods exports, Non oil exports, at $55 billion last year with tremendous room to grow.

“And in particular, we identified that the service sector that is software services, Computer Services, accounting services, personnel services, which can be provided by young Nigerians staying in Nigeria and providing services through the internet and through telephones, outsourcing in a world was a big area we emphasized.

“So in a nutshell, we reported that there was good progress being made that the effort was going to continue to ensure that the interventions and measures to ameliorate the high cost of living for individuals, for the agricultural sector, for industry, for Small Scale businesses, were going to continue to be implemented with all efforts needed for success.

“And on that basis, we we reported an optimistic outlook for the Nigerian economy and the Nigerian society in general, as a result of prospects for economic growth and economic progress.”