Two former presidents, Muhammadu Buhari and Goodluck Jonathan, attended the meeting in person while other former presidents attended virtually.
Seven ministers and National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu briefed the National Council of States on Tuesday at their meeting in Abuja.
Two former presidents, Muhammadu Buhari and Goodluck Jonathan, attended the meeting in person while other former presidents attended virtually, Solid Minerals minister Dele Alake told journalists after the meeting.
Many state governors were also at the meeting.
"And he (Mr Ribadu) did inform the Council of State about the pre-, during and post-event of the last protests, which I do not call a protest. I call a movement to effect a change of regime by force, which was also resisted," Mr Alake said.
PREMIUM TIMES reported the #EndBadGovernance protests nationwide, during which thousands of young Nigerians marched to protest against government policies. The protest turned violent in some states and led to about 22 deaths.
Mr Alake explained that the ministers were invited to make presentations on the roadmap on what they had achieved, the prospects and the challenges in the ministries.
Apart from himself, he listed other ministers who made presentations, including the Coordinating Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, Minister of Works, David Umahi, Minister of Trade and Investment, Doris Uzoka-Anite, and the Minister of Agriculture, Abubakar Kyari.
"So, these seven of us ministers made individual presentations to the council of state meeting, and our presentations were well received from the feedback that we got immediately after individual presentations.
"And of course, at the end of it, matters of state were discussed in a robust manner and frank manner."
Nigeria safe, democracy intact - Ribadu
Mr Alake said Mr Ribadu briefed the council on the country's security situation.
"So the NSA briefed the council on the security situations and allayed fears all round.
"So after the NSA's briefing, generally, he allayed everybody's fears and spoke on the tightness of the security around the country and also reassured all and sundry that nobody will be allowed to truncate our hard-earned democracy.
"Any change of government has to be through the ballots and not through the barrel of the gun or through insurrection or through any other unconstitutional means, only through the ballot box can any government be changed.
"And he reassured on the security readiness of all security agencies in the country, to secure our territorial integrity and to protect Nigeria's Democracy," he said.
Mr Alake said the council thanked Nigerians for resisting any unconstitutional move to change the government, adding, "If anybody is not satisfied with the government, any current administration, there is always an election coming, so you wait for election and cast your vote."
Also speaking, Mr Edun said he briefed the council "on the economy" and updated "them on how far progress had been made in terms of the macroeconomic policies being followed under the leadership of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu."
"And these policies are anchored in his eight priority areas, and the results to date have been very encouraging," he said.
Economy growing
The finance minister said the economy is on the path of growth, adding that the exchange rate is stabilising, though inflation is uncomfortably high.
"We looked at the data, or we reported on the evidence and the data of this half year for which data was available, compared to the first and second quarters of 2023. And in broad terms, the economy is growing.
"The balance of payments, in particular, the trade balance and a current account balance, are in surplus. The exchange rate is stabilising, and inflation, though high, uncomfortably high for the liking of Mr President and his team, is slowing, and it is set to fall.
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"But in particular, there has been support for the economy from investors, foreign investors, by way of portfolio investors, domestic investors, who are participating in important private-public partnerships, particularly infrastructure sector and foreign direct investment, is beginning to recover, I would say so," he said.
Mr Edun said he reported to the council the opportunities for the economy once stabilised for investment and growth "and identified for the meeting the fact that we have exports, goods exports, non-oil exports, at $55 billion last year with tremendous room to grow."
He stated further, "So, in a nutshell, we reported that there was good progress being made that the effort was going to continue to ensure that the interventions and measures to ameliorate the high cost of living for individuals, for the agricultural sector, for industry, for Small Scale businesses, were going to continue to be implemented with all efforts needed for success.
"And on that basis, we reported an optimistic outlook for the Nigerian economy and the Nigerian society in general, as a result of prospects for economic growth and economic progress."
