President Buhari Congratulates President-Elect Of Benin Republic
President Muhammadu Buhari has sent a congratulatory message to the President-elect of Benin Republic, Mr. Patrice Talon, on his electoral victory in the presidential run-off yesterday, as announced by the Autonomous National Electoral Commission.
In a statement by the special adviser to the President on media and publicity, Femi Adesina, Buhari commended the Government and people of Benin Republic on the peaceful and orderly conduct of the presidential elections.
The President also acknowledged the courage and statesmanship of Prime Minister Lionel Zinsou and presidential candidate of the ruling coalition, in upholding the democratic process by promptly congratulating his main challenger, Mr. Talon, on his electoral victory.
He commendeds President Boni Yayi for his leadership throughout the electoral process and for his invaluable contribution to democratic governance in the sub-region, evidently demonstrated in the successful conduct of the presidential elections.
´The President is encouraged by the determination and exemplary conduct demonstrated by Beninese in coming out en masse to perform their civic duties.
“President Buhari believes that the successful conclusion of the electoral process marks an important step in consolidating democracy in the sub-region and a beacon for other African countries to emulate.
“The President trusts that the Beninese will give the incoming government all the necessary support to succeed and reaffirms that Nigeria, as a beneficiary of the dividends of democracy, will continue to build strong partnerships with her neighbours for the peace, progress and prosperity of our citizens.”
, Patrice Talon, an opposition candidate, had emerged winner of the presidential election after garnering majority of the ballots in the second round of polls. The 57 year old Talon beat the candidate of the country’s ruling party and prime minister, Lionel Zinsou, in an election to select the replacement for the President of the West African country, Boni Yayi, who has spent the constitutional allowed two five-year terms in office.
In a move reminiscent of the action of Nigeria’s immediate past President Goodluck Jonathan, Mr. Zinsou has called Mr. Talon to congratulate him even before official release of results.
Official results are expected to be announced later today (Monday).
“The provisional results point to a decisive victory for Patrice Talon,” Zinsou told AFP by telephone. “The difference is significant, (Talon’s) electoral victory is certain.
“I have called Patrice Talon this evening to congratulate him on his victory, wish him good luck and put myself at his disposal to prepare for the handover.”
Mr. Talon, a successful businessman and former ally of incumbent President, Mr. Yayi, who rose from a humble beginning and made his money by running the port at Cotonou, presented himself to voters as the authentic Beninese while attacking his opponent’s dual French nationality, media reports say.
His supporters nicknamed Mr Zinsou, “yoyo”, which means “the white man” for his complexion. Mr. Zinsou, 61, is of mixed birth and attended an elite French University. He was the former speechwriter for former prime minister Laurent Fabius.
Mr Zinsou, who was the frontrunner after the first round of voting with 27.1 per cent, was favoured to win the second round but 24 of the 32 candidates in the election, including third-placed Sebastine Ajavon, who won 22 per cent in the first round endorsed Mr. Talon, who had won 23.5 per cent in the first round, as their candidate during the second round of voting.
Mr. Talon bankrolled Mr Yayi’s successful campaigns in 2006 and 2011 but fell out with the outgoing President and fled to Paris after he was accused of planning to overthrow Mr. Yayi in a coup.
He only returned to the country last October after he was granted a presidential pardon.
He endeared himself to young Beninese with his taste for luxury. Many of them look up to him as being able to come up with solution for the country’s high unemployment. [myad]
The Creeping Impunity, By Moses Okpogode
Those were the days when everyone’s ambition was to become a soldier boy. A period when young men only dreamt of attending the Nigerian Defense Academy or graduate from the conventional universities to enroll for the short services programme in the armed forces units to be commissioned as military officers. It was that period when notes (scribbled on pads) from military assistants and aide-de-camps open several doors of opportunities. Nobody tempers with your family if there exists even a sergeant in your lineage. Yes! That was how far we went before the rebirth of democracy in 1999. The same rhythm heralded the change of government from the People’s Democratic Party to the All Progressive Congress in 2015. We all had a stand; that stand has made it difficult for us to really perform our duties as media practitioners and change agents because we clamored for an Utopian state without studying the underlining factors that bore such conditions.
Like the dead and dying young men in Rivers State at the weekend election rerun, we all wished for change with the actors riding on our backs to achieve their aims and objectives but leaving us to lick our self-inflicted wounds sustained in exercising our right to support them while still clouded in ignorance. From the ocean end of Cross Rivers to the edges of Nigeria in Sokoto state, the same voice that cried and prayed for change is singing a recalcitrant song of disappointment in power outages, bad roads, shortage of petroleum products, high cost of living, insecurity — not boko haram at this times but that of the unknown marauders lurking around from nowhere at night in our cities, roads and villages. The distrust, both ethno and religious, and the ready answers from the government and the indifferent attitude to such yearnings of the people reverberate all over the country. The government is always quick to tell you that it is cleaning the Augean stable left behind by the previous administration of the PDP, forgetting that all successive governments in the history of Nigeria rode to power on the alleged ineptitude and cluelessness of predecessor administrations. None of them came on an agenda that was not hinged on the alleged lack of skills of the past overseers.
While the media has lost confidence and audacity to bark, it does not translate that the current state of affairs is the best bargain for Nigerians. Human rights abuses pervade the society with countless numbers of state-orchestrated criminality and individually planned kidnappings taking place everywhere at all time. The government is, however, silent on these, especially when they seem to have taken place in states aligned with the ousted opposition party, the PDP. A case in point is the abduction of female minor, Ms. Ese Oruru, from far away Bayelsa, to Kano state for eight months, and the continued alleged detention of Ekiti lawmakers in the dungeons of the States Services Department. The federal government has not come out to clear the air on whether it has hands or not in the tragic stories of harassment by federal security agents against the Ekiti State Government and its officials. All this makes mockery of the oath-taking ritual that is now seen as a ceremony. Because elected political and public officers have never adhered to it but have, instead, treated majority of the people unfairly and favour only those considered as their lackeys or of the same ethnic and religious background, in an attempt to quieten dissenting voices that preach true change. This they do, not realizing that it is this non-adherence to the oath of office that has caused all the failures of the past.
That is the same latitude that made a group of people accused of extra judicial killings in Agatu land to go public, claiming that they were behind the attacks on innocent women and children in Benue State. They had not only gone further to downgrade their case but claimed that their actions were a consequence of the activities of local cattle rustlers who stole over 200 of their cows and killed one of their important kinsmen in 2013. Those are the sad narratives we see and listen to in this clime daily. Stories that make our land insecure for foreigners who read the negatives in our stories; yet, we pretend to want to woo them into being part of us by bringing in their funds from more stable environments to invest in our country. In any part of the country you turn to today, there is one gory picture of someone who is being subverted by the system directly and with all impunity. It’s either you are denied your privileges and/or entitlement, or denied your rights by those who have sworn deceitfully to their oath of office using the Quran and the Bible. In some cases, you are indirectly punished with harsh policies of those who swore to protect you, in line with constitutional dictates. A very sad recurring decimal.
It thus calls for the government to look into the now ingraining culture of inglorious license for lawlessness in the country whether instituted and perpetrated by law enforcement officials, their allies, or the new class of untouchables whose population seems to be growing geometrically. Except in Africa, there is nowhere persons will want to see the people they want to serve killed, just to climb unto the podium of service, but in Nigeria. Alas, Nigeria belongs to all of us. We must also realize that today’s men will evolve into yesterday’s men in no time and they can only be judged by their actions of today by posterity. As for the ethnic jingoists and religious bigots, there is need for caution. They should allow peace reign in this country because Nigeria is a nation only when peace is seen as the rallying point amongst the people.
Twitter: @MOkpogode. [myad]