Tinubu in the Villa, Says Buhari is on Honeymoon

A national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Bola Tinubu, has asked Nigerians to be patient with President Muhammadu Buhari, saying that the president is still on honeymoon.

Tinubu, who met with Buhari Tuesday at the State House, said the president needed to take the stock and determine the true extent of damage before taking a decision.

He said he came to see the president to make sure that the party remained on the right track.

Asked to react to the allegation that the president is going too slow in handling the nation’s affairs, Tinubu replied, “Excuse me! Let us calm. May 29 was when this president was sworn in. It is an international norm all over the world, there is honeymoon period, at least a minimum of 100 days honeymoon. And you won’t allow honeymoon at all?
“You said change is not coming, change is not by magic. It is driven by the people, the spirit and the character and the planning.

“You see, we have had so much problem in this country in the past because we run into policy blind folded without adequate and effective planning. You don’t have results unless you plan well. The time it takes you to plan, examine, rejig, re-evaluate is more important than the time you just rush into taking action because you are either being sentimental, being emotional and being driven by other forces that are not expected.

“It is not fair to jump into those conclusions. There must be time to plan, to review and even listen to people.

“There is a separation between a campaign period, articulating your vision, expressing the promises to Nigerians, there is a time to look holistically to what you inherited, analyse it, distil and then take action.

“Even in 100 metres race, there is a time to say on your mark, set, ready, go. So you don’t even want a time to be on your mark, set and go? No, no, no. You are not being fair.”

He said it was wrong to conclude that the meeting between the president and members of the party in the House of Representatives was deadlocked.

He added that the crisis rocking the party in the National Assembly was a political process that needed to develop its own life and be worked upon to stabilise and continue to serve the interest of the populace.

He said: “As a matter of fact when the National Assembly job starts, the job of lawmaking in earnest,  the president needs to step in once in a while as he did to let people to understand the import of the expectations of the public and particularly of the international community on various programmes and institutions.

“We need to build the institutions, make it viral and effective for the entire country. “To step in to douse any conflict is not a wrong thing or do you think it is wrong?”