Asuquo Cletus Felix
Ahead of the nation's inauguration on May 29th, Nigeria's outgoing president, President Muhammadu Buhari on Sunday said Nigerians can elect leaders of their choice.
The president said this in Abuja, during his last speech, and address as the country's 15th democratically elected president.
Buhari, who is handing over to Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the ruling All Progressive Congress, said he is leaving an electoral process behind where votes count, so as to enable Nigerians vote leaders of their choice across party lines.
He also noted that his administration had enabled the nation's economy to become more resilient due to the various strategies put in place to ensure that the economy remained afloat during cases of global economic downturns.
" Fellow Nigerians, on the strength of your overwhelming support for me and my political party, I started this journey with a great deal of promise and expectation from you. I never intended to be just politically correct but to do the correct things that will make meaningful impact on the lives of the common Nigerian.
"This high expectation was not misplaced because, like the ordinary Nigerian, I had grown tired of watching the country progressively moving away from the path of correctness.
" To ensure that our democracy remains resilient and our elected representatives remain accountable to the people, I am leaving behind an electoral process which guarantees that votes count, results are credible, elections are fair and transparent and the influence of money in politics reduced to the barest minimum. And Nigerians can elect leaders of their choice.
"We are already seeing the outcome of this process as it provided an even playing field where persons without any political God-Father or access to money defeated other well-resourced candidates.
" The Nigerian economy has become more resilient due to the various strategies put in place to ensure that our economy remained afloat during cases of global economic downturns".- Buhari said