By Joshua Olomu
Dr Sidie Tunis, immediate past Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament (EcoParl), has called on Nigerians to support President Bola Tinubu as his administration tackles the rising security challenges facing the country.
He made the appeal in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on the sideline of the just concluded commemoration of the regional parliament’s silver jubilee on Saturday in Abuja.
Tunis, a member of the Sierra Leone Parliament, lauded various security reforms by the Tinubu administration, urging that the fight against violent crimes required both governmental action and collective support and understanding of citizens.
According to him, there is a need for Nigerians to stand with the administration in tackling the escalating activities of the bandits and other security threats instead of criticising the efforts of the government.
“Nigerians should rally behind their president, there is no leader in the world that will want to fail, and no leader that will not recognise security as a serious factor.
“Support will give courage to the leaders to do more, but if you continue to criticise them, even when they are putting in all their efforts,they will be discouraged.
“Security is not a matter of politics or religion, because When the bandits come, they are not going to say who is APC or PDP.
“We have experienced civil war in my country Sierra Leone, just like the Biafra war, and I can tell you that peace is better, so Nigerians must work with the leadership, and support them, “ he said.
The former EcoPar speaker also called for cooperation between national governments across ECOWAS to effectively tackle the security challenges facing the sub-region.
He condemned the spate of unconstitutional takeover of governments in the sub-region and the continent at large.
According to him, although coup is harmful to sustained democracy in the continent, bad leadership was fueling it.
“ I strongly believe bad governance and corruption are two key factors that are responsible for most of the coup d’états that we have in the sub- region.
“If you have situations where presidents who are supposed to do two terms want to tamper with the constitution so that they can extend their stay in power, that’s a constitutional coup.
“The only difference between them and the military is the fact that the military have guns, but they also are staging a coup on the constitution,” he said.
Tunis, the longest-serving Member of the Sierra Leonean Parliament, has extensive experience in legislative politics and governance both at the national and regional levels.
He has previously served as Majority Leader and Leader of Government Business in the Fifth Parliament of the Second Republic of Sierra Leone.
A strong ally of President Julius Bio, Tunis is widely speculated and considered as a strong potential candidate for the presidency of his country in the 2028 elections.
He, however, told NAN that his focus for now was to support the president to deliver on his campaign made by the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP).
“In the first place, anybody can have an ambition and have the ambition to become president, yes, because it’s a natural progression.”
“But at the moment, to be very honest with you, my focus is really not on that, I may have the ambition, but my focus is on the president’s agenda-for him to succeed,” he said.
Tunis served as a senior member of the Sierra Leone delegation to the ECOWAS Parliament prior to his election as the Fifth Honourable Speaker, a position he held from March 2020 to March 2024.
As part of highpoints in the commemoration of ECOWAS Parliament at 25,Tunis was given an award of recognition of service alongside other past speakers and founding fathers of ECOWAS.(NAN)
Edited by Joseph Edeh
