The Council of State on Tuesday passed a “vote of confidence” on President Bola Tinubu.
The meeting, the first since Tinubu assumed office on May 29 last year was attended by former Presidents Muhammadu Buhari and Goodluck Jonathan.
The duo of former heads of state, Yakubu Gowon and Abdulsalami Abubakar, joined the meeting virtually.
The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, and the Kwara State Governor, Abdulrazaq Abdulrahman, briefed the State House correspondents at the end of the meeting.
Alake said the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, presented the report on the country’s security situation to the council.
He added that the council commended Nigerians for resisting any unconstitutional attempt to change government during the #EndBadGovernance protests.
The minister said: “Of course, at the end of it, matters of state were discussed in a robust and frank manner. The national security adviser was also on hand to present the security situation of the country.
“The National Security Adviser was also 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.
“The council thanked Nigerians at large for resisting any unconstitutional move to change the government; if anybody is not satisfied with the government, 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 round.
“So, 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 through any other unconstitutional means; only through the ballot box can any government be changed.”
On his part, Abdulrahman said the council council passed a vote of confidence on the president.
He said: “The high note of the meeting was a unanimous passage of a vote of confidence on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR, Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces.
“Members, especially those of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum, were satisfied with the presentation by the members of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) and after that meeting, there was an executive session between members of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum and Mr. President, and frank and fruitful discussions were held between both parties.”