TheCable

Yakubu Gowon, a former head of state, says Nigerians should give President Bola Tinubu more time to address the various challenges facing the country.

Addressing journalists after meeting with the president at the State House on Wednesday, Gowon asked Nigerians to be patient with Tinubu.

He said it is too early for the president to “achieve absolute results” after eight months in office.

“Well, I was telling him (Tinubu) that no Nigerian leader can get there and will not have all the report of what is being said about him,” Gowon said.

“But certainly, there’s no doubt from what one hears and what one sees on the various media, etc. I think the government is trying their best to deal with the various problems of the country.

“Don’t you worry, you will get criticised, but people who get there know better than you know. 

“I think that all one can say is that Nigerians, we’ve got to give the president time. And it is too early to sort of say absolute result, perfect result will be achieved now. That is my opinion. 

“I know and if I can remember, when I was fighting the war, I was told I was too slow and that probably Nigeria cannot make it and that we should now seek for discussion.

“Well, did we do it or not? They probably do not know the problem underground, so that is where we are.”

The former head of state added that he also discussed recent issues about the ECOWAS with the president.

“Luckily enough, this time he gave me the opportunity to see him to discuss various matters, especially the issue of the ECOWAS problem at the moment which I think needs to be resolved,” he said.

“And being the surviving member of the founding fathers, I think we have to discuss some of his plans in order to see what can be done to bring the matter under control.

“So, this is what has brought me here and we had an interesting discussion”