Bola Tinubu, Nigeria’s President-elect, on Thursday, assured that he would fulfil all the campaign promises he made when he assumes office as President from May 29.
The former Lagos governor made the promise in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, while inaugurating the Magistrates’ Court Complex built by Governor Nyesom Wike’s administration and named after a former Chief Judge of the state, Justice Iche Ndu (retd.).
“The reform is on the way; I am here with the hope that you will collaborate with me; I promise you my commitment to fulfil all political promises I made,” he said.
“I promise Nigerians the unity of this country is not negotiable. That is what Nyesom Wike and I are promoting jointly. I promise I will be fair to all.
“We will fight poverty; and we must fight it rigorously. Poverty of thinking, poverty, poverty of standard; poverty of reasoning.”
Tinubu commended Wike for building the courthouse, which he described as gorgeous, remarking that there was no better way to fight corruption in the judiciary than taking care of judges and making sure they are comfortable.
Tinubu stated, “I take a different angle to what Wike has done here today. It is fighting corruption, and you have been contributing very well to this.
“You don’t expect your judges to live in squalor, to operate in squalor, to dispense justice in squalor. This is part of the changes that are necessary in our policy think tank.
“We must fight corruption and we definitely must look at the other side of the coin. If you don’t want your judges to be corrupt, you got to pay attention to their welfare. If you want fair dispensation of justice, you don’t want them to operate in hazardous conditions. Let’s think value for value. If I don’t have consumer credit and you want me to pay for the car I needed at once, N5m, N6m, driving temptation to corruption.
“But if you have consumer credit, then that will reduce the propensity to corruption. We don’t want our judges to play foul, to compromise justice. Not just the books, but do something. And I promise you, we are going to review all of these in our policy think tank.”
Tinubu said with what Wike had done, it was left for the magistrates to do justice.
“May God give you the will and the commitment to dispense justice to our society,” he said.
He lashed out at what he described as “the diversion they gave my story yesterday (Wednesday),” on Wike’s demand for commitment that the Federal Government should refund the money spent by the state on federal projects.
Tinubu said, “I don’t want to quarrel with anybody or with people before I even assume office. But I speak my mind always. We are on the same platform. We must tolerate one another, live together.”
Earlier, Wike harped on the need to up the culture of maintenance in the country, saying it was too early for the Council of Legal Education to ignore the Dr Nabo Graham-Douglas Campus of the Nigerian Law School in Port Harcourt, which he built.
Wike stated,”When we handed over the Law School to the Council of Legal Education, the (Rivers) State government gave out N400M, and said ‘Look, put it in an account for the maintenance of the structures.’
“We gave them property that they can use to make money to keep the school. We didn’t want a situation where they would say the Federal Government has not released money or the money they released is too small. I was told the other day that there was no light, there was no water. I can’t understand our system.”
“As I am leaving office, in this one year, when I come here, I don’t want to see and hear that it is dilapidated or it has deteriorated it will be unfair. So each month, you’ll get N20m to maintain this place. So, we will give you one year (money) in advance so that you’ll keep this place well,” he said at the opening of the court complex.