Tinubu : A journey to complete break from military rule, By Tanko Yakasai

The election of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the APC official candidate is indeed an important political development in our transition to full fledged democracy, a milestone attained by an acclaimed figure and politician juggernaut of the APC, National Leader Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinunbu.

Paramount and if elected as president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Asiwaju will signify the complete and total break of the country’s political life from military rule and its influence in our polity, and bring about the return of the country to full fledged democratic tradition and practice for the first time since 1999 when our country returned to the path of civilian rule.

When Asiwaju, a sage, is eventually elected as the president of the country in the coming presidential elections, history shall be made in our contemporary political development for a number of reasons.

It is gratifying to note that the nomination of candidates by the major political parties in Nigeria PDP and APC to have transited from military to non military actors. I therefore, find it important to appeal to all candidates vying for various political offices in the country to commit themselves to the principle of playing politics according to the rule of the game, eschew bitterness violence and do away with the culture of political thuggery in our political activism and return the country to the path of civility in the conduct of partisan politics.

May their emergence be the harbinger of the return of playing politics with decorum and playing game of politics without bitterness and the beginning of the arduous task of finding better strategies that will enhance the needed national unity, peaceful coexistence and cohesion in our country, prerequisites for genuine nation building.

I pray that the coming general elections will be conducted in a peaceful atmosphere free from violence, and hope that the National Electoral Commission will conduct the election in a peaceful and credible manner free from rigging and manipulation.

• Yakasai OFR, Elder Statesman was Political Adviser to President Shehu Shagari (1979-1983)