By Adekola Afolabi

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Notable Nigerians have set agenda for the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, saying people’s expectations from him are high.

The personalities who specially congratulated the President-elect on his victory at the last Saturday’s Presidential election, however, said he should hit the ground running as soon as he is sworn in.

Those who spoke in separate telephone interviews include the Ondo State Chairman of Afenifere, Chief Korede Duyile; a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Adekola Olawoye and a public affairs commentator, Chief Dapo Filani, said they have no doubt that the President-elect will do well because of his background and antecedents as former Governor of Lagos State.

They particularly charged the President-elect to provide mass employments for the youths and surgically rejuvenate the economy as a chartered accountant, so that the country can be immediately taken out of the woods and to the promised land.

According to them, the incoming government should strengthen the security architecture to protect the lives and properties of the citizens and better the lot of all.

They equally asked him to put in place better and functional educational policy and make life more meaningful to all.

On the low turnout of voters in Saturday’s elections, they attributed the political apathy recorded across the country to the severe hardship being experienced by Nigerians as a result of fuel and naira scarcity.

Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, the Ooni of Ife, urged President-elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu to put together a team made up of professionals and intellectuals to come up with an economic recovery blueprint for Nigeria.

The royal father made the call in a congratulatory message to Tinubu, signed by Moses Olafare, his Director of Media and Publicity.

“Nigerians have voted for you because of your promise of a Renewed Hope, and you must act swiftly from your first day in office to set the ball rolling in a manner that will further assure Nigerians of the Renewed Hope.”

Adenifere chieftain, Chief Korede Duyile explained that the state of the economy particularly in terms of cash crunch made it extremely difficult for so many people to move out or travel to where they could exercise their franchise. “Look at fuel scarcity, many people who have cars could not move. Another important reason is that people were afraid there would be violence. All these contributed to the low turnout.”

Olawoye said, “We learnt that over 90 million registered and at the end of the day, less than 25 percent came out to exercise their franchise. It is a serious thing for us to ruminate on for future elections. The apathy is due to many factors which are known to many of us.

“There is hunger and poverty in the land. About three months to the general elections there was naira redesign. That bad, anti-people and anti-democracy monetary policy stagnated many people across the country.

These twins brother of anti-civilisation and nasty policy of the Federal Government were happening when we have major elections. The policy really crippled many people. These are major reasons we have low turnout during the election.”

On vote buying, Olawoye said the incident is fizzling out as a result of the cashless policy as it was not pronounced unlike previous elections, just as he lauded Ondo State Governor, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu for insisting on what is fair and just by championing Southern Presidency in the interest of unity and progress of the country.

The Senior Aadvocate of Nigeria, also urged the President-elect not to allow any cabal hijack his government.

On his part, Chief Dapo Filani, said one of the reasons political gladiators don’t accept the outcome of election easily is that so many things in terms of money have been put into the process which many will not find easy to lose.

Another reason he gave is that when the process is believed to be manipulated to favour some people or a particular party, even as he described the last Saturday’s elections as most transparent, fairest and credible.

The speakers also attributed high numbers of cancelled votes to inadequate education and enlightenment, just as they called for proper and adequate education to enable illiterate voters know how to properly cast their votes.