President Bola Tinubu on Tuesday has vowed wrestle his political opponents to the finish line in the 2027 election.
He asserted that he would not yield ground without a fight and that all was fair in a democratic contest.
NEWSNGR reports that the President stated this when he received the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The President said, “Those who would take it from me will try. They will try. All is fair in politics, and there is equal opportunity.
“I won’t offer them a red carpet. I won’t offer them the leash to tie me at home.
“No, we will wrestle each other to the finishing point. That’s the truth. That is fair in politics.”
At the meeting which lasted barely an hour, Tinubu told the clerics that three years of difficult reforms were yielding visible dividends, pointing to the uninterrupted academic calendar as a measure ordinary Nigerians could feel.
The President also discussed the return of mission schools to their original proprietors, a long-running tension between the Catholic Church and several state governments.
Tinubu noted that he had returned mission schools to the church during his tenure as Governor of Lagos State, pointing to Cardinal Anthony Okogie as a living witness to his decision when he served from 1999 to 2007.
However, he argued that the power to act lay with state governors, not the Federal Government, and redirected the bishops to the state.
“The schools are in the states. Preach to them, the governors of your states. They do the job.
There is no need for a constitutional amendment for that. That is part of democracy. Choice,” he said.
On national unity and security, he described Nigeria’s challenges as a generational issue that could not be escaped.
He said, “The security situation is what it is. We don’t have another country but here.
“This Nigeria. And we revert to our national anthem in its complexity and diversity; we shall thrive, live, rejoice and be good to all of us.
“Our founding fathers did their best. They left us a nation, and we owe it to our generations yet unborn to build a nation of unity, stability and prosperity for the future.”
The Catholic Bishops, led by Archbishop Matthew Man-Oso Ndagoso, concluded their visit to the Villa at minutes past 5:00 pm local time and were conveyed out of the premises in a Toyota Coaster bus.
