President Bola Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Special Duties, Communications and Strategy, Dele Alake, on Saturday in Lagos, said the President was ready to lead the charge on the local and foreign scenes as the rest of Africa looked up to Nigeria.
“Everybody is looking up to Nigeria, especially in Africa and the ECOWAS region and President Tinubu is ready to take up the gauntlet,” Alake told State House Correspondents when President Umaro Embaló of Guinea Bissau visited the President at his Ikoyi residence in Lagos.
The Director of Information, State House, Abiodun Oladunjoye, revealed this in a statement he signed on Saturday titled ‘African Issues: President Tinubu ready to take up gauntlet, says Dele Alake’.
Alake said Tinubu recognised that other African nations were taking cues from Nigeria in terms of leadership, adding that the President was prepared to step up to the challenge of providing a befitting example.
He noted that although both men met privately, President Embaló used the opportunity to express his solidarity and willingness to cooperate with Nigeria under the leadership of Tinubu.
Saturday’s visit also allowed Embaló, who is currently the Chairman of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government, to reinforce the fraternal relations between the two countries, Alake revealed. President Embaló commended the laudable policy initiatives of President Tinubu in the last one month and added that everyone in the international community had been commending the giant strides of the Nigerian leader.
“He came to pay his solidarity and bond with a brother African head of State, in the first instance, and in particular as a brother Head of State in West Africa,” said the President’s spokesman.
Alake described the engagement as a “commendable sign of things to come in the entire West African region”.
He said the show of support stems from President Tinubu’s “giant steps in the last one month” which, he said, had created a suitable atmosphere and the need for Nigeria to take its rightful place in African affairs.
“Everybody is looking up to Nigeria, especially in Africa and the ECOWAS region and President Tinubu is ready to take up the gauntlet,” Alake added.
