Posted by Chuks Okocha on
President-elect, Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, begins his first official tour today to some key African countries including to some influential countries of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
President-elect, Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, begins his first official tour today to some key African countries including to some influential countries of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
The trip which is coming 20 days to his inauguration is expected to provide the President-elect the opportunity to lobby support for his administration.
A statement signed by the spokesman of the President-elect, Mr. Ndu Ughamadu, said the first leg of the visit will take the 12-man delegation to Benin Republic, Togo, Niger, Senegal, South Africa, Algeria and Libya.
Yar'Adua will be accompanied on the tour by selected captains of industry and government officials and is expected to hold bilateral meetings in all the countries on the schedule.
He will also hold talks with the Presidents and Heads of Government of the countries "including professional and interest groups."
Matters of mutual interest between Nigeria and the host countries are expected to be the focus of the bilateral talks.
Though members of the delegation are scheduled to return to Abuja on Monday after visiting Togo and Benin Republic, they will be leaving Abuja again on Tuesday for Niger, Senegal, South-Africa, Algeria and Libya.
"The foreign trip will be the first since Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar'Adua was declared winner and returned elected in last month's general elections", the statement read.
THISDAY gathered that at the end of the first round of the trips, the President-elect would also be going to China while visits to Europe and America be in the third round.
In a related development, the Crown Prince of Emirate of Abu Dhabi, General Sheik Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, has sent a congratulatory message to Yar'Adua.
The letter, which was personally delivered, read in part, "we note that this will be the first time in the 47 year post-independence history of your country that a democratic civilian administration will successfully and peacefully hand over to a duly elected fresh civilian administration. This is indeed a major achievement".
The crown prince said he was confident that the two countries will deepen the existing relationship between them.
Meanwhile, the Citizens Popular Party (CPP) presidential candidate, Mr Maxi Okwu, has advised Yar'Adua to convene an all stakeholders' meeting to address the current political quagmire.
Okwu said Yar'Adua should consider convoking the meeting as a matter of urgent national importance toward achieving peace, stability and progress.
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He also advised Yar'Adua to ignore the antics of political jobbers and face the reality of the moment, "namely the resolution of the mourning mood of Nigerians occasioned by the poll".
According to him, the proposed forum must discuss a genuine national agenda and agree on major constitutional amendments, including incumbency factor at polls, strengthening of the rule of law and the restructuring of INEC to make the electoral umpire truly independent.
Okwu explained that dialogue would form the basis for resolving the current political crisis rather than mass action, which he said, could be violent and capable of causing anarchy in the country.