By Jacob Omoluyi and Ologeh Joseph Chibu
The week-long EndBadGovernance protest was designed to overthrow President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Council of State has said.
The Council is a platform of all former Presidents and Heads of State.
The former leaders spoke after their meeting held in Abuja.
The Council also passed a vote of confidence on President Tinubu.
Those at the meeting were former Head of State Yakubu Gowon, Presidents Goodluck Jonathan, Mohammadu Buhari, former Heads of State Abdusalami Abubakar and the current President Tinubu
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo and former dictator, Ibrahim Babangida were absent.
The Council of State described the protest as an attempted regime change.
Other statutory participants were the Senate President, Speaker of the House of Representatives, the serving and retired Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, as well as state governors.
Those who passed the vote of confidence on Tinubu were Generals Yakubu Gowon, Muhammadu Buhari and Abdulsalami Abubakar, as well as former President Goodluck Jonathan.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo and General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, IBB, were absent at the meeting.
Briefing newsmen, the Minister of Solid Mineral Development, Dr. Dele Alake, said the leaders praises Tinubu for resisting a “forcible takeover of government.”
Alake said the National Security Adviser, NSA Mallam Nuhu Ribadu had earlier briefed the leaders on the security situation in Nigeria.
Alake said: “As you all are aware, the Council of State just concluded its meeting with all the former heads of state in attendance, physically or virtually.
On those who attended the meeting, he said at the last count, he thought most of them were physically attending.
Alake said former heads of state, General Buhari and President Goodluck Jonathan were there physically, and the rest were there virtually, via Zoom.
“So in essence, in principle, all of them were in attendance. And that’s a very eloquent testimony to the kind of support they are giving to our current president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“A lot of issues were exhaustively discussed at the meeting. And, of course, you know that apart from the former heads of state, the constitutional composition of the council of state includes all governors, security adviser, Attorney General and the rest. So the governors were all in attendance as well.
He said seven ministers made individual presentations to the council of state meeting, and their presentations were well received from the feedback received immediately after the individual presentations.
“Of course, at the end of it, matters of state of the nation were discussed, in a robust and frank manner. And the National Security Adviser also was on hand to present the security situation of the country.
“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.
He said the council thanked Nigerians at large for resisting any unconstitutional move to change the government, that if anybody is not satisfied with the government, any current administration, there is always an election coming, so you wait for the election and cast your vote.
“So the NSA briefed the council on the security situations and allayed fears all around.
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 insurrection or any other unconstitutional means, only through the ballot box can any government be changed.
“He reassured on the readiness of all security agencies in the country, to secure our territorial integrity and protect Nigeria’s democracy,” Alake said.
He said the governor of Kwara State and Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, NGF, Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, said the council unanimously passed a vote of confidence on Tinubu in the way he had governed the country.
He said: “We, indeed, had a very robust meeting. The high note of the meeting was a unanimous passage of a vote of confidence on President Bola Tinubu, Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian armed forces.
“Members, especially those of the Nigerian Governors Forum, were satisfied with the presentations by members of the Federal Executive Council, and after that meeting, there was an executive session between members of the Nigerian Governors Forum and the President.
“Frank and fruitful discussions were held between both parties, and I’m glad to say we’re on the right track. And to say in the same vein, members of the NGF also, like the members of the Council of State, passed a vote of confidence on the President.”
