Following the outcome of the just concluded 2019 Presidential election which saw President Muhammadu Buhari emerging the winner for second time, a maritime lawyer, Mr. Osuala Emmanuel Nwagbara has called on President Buhari to set machinery in motion towards reconciling all sections of the country.
Nwagbara who made this call while reacting to the declaration of President Buhari as President elect by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in a chat with Primetime Reporters said reconciling the nation was more critical at this moment as many nerves were frayed in the course of the elections.
He further advised the President to embark on national reconciliation and get everyone to be on deck because Nigeria was a project which must succeed for the present generation and generations yet unborn proud of.
In his words,” I won’t say that I am surprised that he returned. Don’t forget he’s an incumbent president and power of incumbency is a potent one for every administration. This election was fought on issues and it’s good for Nigeria. Social media did a lot of work, a lot of campaigns went on the social media, people took positions, there were hiccups here and there but finally we are happy we have election result and Nigeria will move forward.
“So, I congratulate the President, Muhammadu Buhari for a second term in office. I will only ask him to be magnanimous in victory and the losers should be gallant in loss. What the president should do now which I think is paramount is to embark on reconciliation because in the course of campaigns, a lot of nerves were frayed. So, he should embark on national reconciliation and get everyone to be on deck because Nigeria is a project which must succeed if ourselves that are living now and generations yet unborn should be proud of this country”.
Nwagbara who is also the Managing Partner of Maritime and Commercial Law Partners added that the president should set up a commission of enquiry into what led to the violence witnessed during the election and try to bring the perpetrators to book ion the areas where violence took place saying that that would assuage the pains of those who lost their loved ones during the elections.
“You don’t rule out over zealousness on the part of the security officials, that will also be addressed. I think there is machinery for addressing that within the various security outfits that we read that their officials participated in some kind of behaviours that were unbecoming of the agencies which they represented.
“So, the president has to look at that while at the same time look at the politicians too that were involved in this. There must be something done with these politicians who are identified to have directly contributed to this. It is possible that out of over zealousness, a person may act on behalf of his principal without the complicity of the principal. All these are issues and you don’t rule that out but when you find this over zealousness, such a person should be cautioned or punished for it”, he said.
He however urged the president to take a second look at his governance strategy and get the best hands to work with him in his second tenure adding “From this campaign, we noticed that there are intelligent Nigerians who can, working together make this country work”.
He continued,” The president should look at all of those who campaigned on issues, who showed they have ideas to move this country forward and bring them in to work as a team in the interest of this country. That is paramount. The economy deserves to be given closer attention, issue of security; they are there always and even greater now that we want to consolidate on the gains of the last four years”.
On areas the president should focus attention in the maritime industry, the maritime lawyer said,” The president has to look at particularly the maritime industry when you are talking about the economy. The maritime industry should be given a very close attention. We have the bills that are yet to be assented to, the Transport Commission bill; it is paramount to drive the wheels of the transport industry in this country. That bill has a lot of potentials to turn this economy around and we have to look at maritime security, we have to strengthen the Navy, we have to strengthen NIMASA working with the Navy and the Maritime Guard Command has to be back in its full force so that we can protect our waters from piracy.
“The president has to seriously look at the maritime industry and possibly create the Ministry of Maritime Affairs for Nigeria. He can do that now. Infrastructure is key, the president has started working on infrastructure; let him up his game here. We need robust infrastructure and I think that if the president works taking into consideration the issues that were on the front burner during the campaigns, the president will move this country forward in the next four years to the height that everybody will be proud of”.
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