“Don’t worry about the criticism against your administration” — Gowon advises Tinubu

Yakubu Gowon, Nigeria’s former head of state, has advised President Bola Tinubu to ignore all criticism against his administration and focus.

Gowon also urged Nigerians not to rush into judging the performance of President Bola Tinubu.

He said this to State House correspondents on Wednesday after meeting with Tinubu at the Presidential Villa.

According to Gowon, it is too early to deliver a final verdict on Tinubu’s government.

He said “well, I was telling him that no Nigerian leader can get there and will not have all the reports of what is being said about him.

“But certainly, there’s no doubt from what one hears and what one sees on the various media etc, I think the government is trying their best to deal with the various problems of the country but with Nigerians?

“Don’t you worry you will get criticised but people who get there know better than you know. I think all what one can say is that Nigerians, we’ve got to give the president time to things really done. And it is too early to sort of say absolute result, perfect result will be achieved now.

“That is my opinion. I know and if I can remember, when I was fighting the war I was told I was too slow and that probably Nigeria cannot make it and that we should now seek for discussion.

“Well, did we do it or not? They probably do not know the problem underground so that is where we are.”

The two leaders discussed the ongoing crisis in ECOWAS, with Gowon emphasising the need for a resolution as one of the founding fathers of the regional bloc.

There had been reports that Gowon refused to attend a recent ECOWAS conference, but he dismissed those as miscommunication.