All Progressives Congress (APC) standard bearer Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu yesterday urged Nigerians to troop out enmass to vote for him at Saturday’s poll.
He explained why he should succeed President Muhammadu Buhari, saying that he will work for the good and happiness of the greatest number of Nigerians.
Also yesterday, 155 North’s Christian leaders backed the APC candidate, describing him as the best for the country.
The Director of the Strategic Communication of the APC Presidential Campaign Council (PCC), Mr. Dele Alake, said Tinubu’s opponents will be shocked on poll day.
Four parties and five governorship candidates from the Southwest also pledged their support for Tinubu.
In a statement titled:’Why I seek your mandate to be president of Nigeria,’ Tinubu said he will build on the achievements of President Muhammadu Buhari.
The statement reads: “Fellow Nigerians, it is with a tremendous sense of history and an immense awareness of the challenges ahead of us as a country that I address you today. For the past few months, my running mate, Senator Kashim Shettima and I and other leaders of our great party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) have traversed the length and breadth of our country in the course of our campaigns for the forthcoming presidential, governorship and legislative elections at all levels.
“I have been overwhelmed by the enthusiastic crowds that have trooped out to receive us in all the states we visited. On Tuesday, we had the grand finale of our rally in Lagos State. It is obvious to me from my interaction with our people across the country that, despite our challenges, the APC enjoys tremendous goodwill among the vast majority of our people.
“In all the states we have visited, there are visible landmarks of the huge impact the President Muhammadu Buhari administration has made in terms of infrastructural development in the form of rural and urban roads and expressways, modern railway tracks, as well as improved airport facilities, among others.
“Millions of our poor and vulnerable people have benefitted from the various social intervention programmes of the Buhari administration. The amounts disbursed to these categories of our people are unprecedented in terms of the sheer transfer of resources to the less privileged sections of the population not only in our country but in Africa. It is remarkable and ironical that those who were in power for 16 years earned far higher revenues from petroleum than we did and yet were unable to effectively tackle neither infrastructure nor poverty. They now have the temerity to cast aspersions on the APC administration.
“Our campaign tours demonstrated clearly to us that you, our people, are not deceived.
“Of course, we are aware of the hardships suffered by our people and the challenges confronting our country. Some of these could have been mitigated by better conceptualized and articulated policies. The truth is that there can be no perfect government in any human community.
“Some of the problems are also of global origin such as the unanticipated COVID-19 pandemic that disrupted economies worldwide or the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war that has disrupted global food and fuel supply chains.
“It is clear to me that there is a lot that the Buhari administration has done that are laudable in the areas of infrastructure, agriculture and poverty alleviation. We must build upon these achievements.
“There are also some sectors where we must adopt new approaches and stress new priorities.
“What is clear is that the Office of the President of Nigeria is not one of pleasure. Rather, it will demand the highest standard of hard work, discipline, focus, determination and commitment on the part of the next President.
“I pledge solemnly that my Vice-President and I will dedicate ourselves wholeheartedly to working for the greatest good and happiness of the greatest number of Nigerians.
“Senator Shettima and I have outstanding records of high performance in public office as Governors of our states. In Lagos, where I served as Governor for 8 remarkable years, I led a team of talented, hardworking, creative, intelligent and purposeful people that recalibrated governance and set new standard in good governance that continues to propel the state to greater growth and development till date. That Lagos State is the 5th largest economy in Africa didn’t happen by chance. It is a product of consistent hardwork and creative leadership.
“We seek to demonstrate on national scale that energy and capacity that transformed our state to bring prosperity to all Nigerians.
“Our administration will work to ensure not just a farewell to poverty but also usher in an era of prosperity in our country. To achieve this, we will re-engineer our security architecture to enhance the capacity of our armed forces and security agencies to guarantee the safety of the lives and properties of our people. This will enable our farmers to return fully to their farms with the resultant increase in food production and affordability. We will initiate measures to boost the revenue earnings of our farmers and improve the standard of living in our rural areas, home to the vast majority of our people.
“We will task our ingenuity to drastically enhance the country’s revenue generating capacity so that we can adequately fund and fundamentally improve the quality of social services in education, healthcare and housing, among others. We are determined to ensure that incessant strikes by unions in our public universities become a thing of the past. We will make facilities and welfare packages in our health sector compare with the best in the world so that many of those health professionals who have migrated to other lands will be attracted back home.
“Ensuring adequate and uninterrupted electricity will be one of our cardinal priorities. This will help boost the performance of the industrial sector and create jobs on a massive scale for our teeming youths. We shall put in place a robust and virile credit system so that more people can acquire the basics of life such as housing, cars and household equipment and pay gradually. That will have the immediate effect of reducing the motivation to resort to corrupt means of wealth accumulation.
“To fight corruption, we will also provide better welfare and motivation to the judiciary to perform its functions with integrity while we will also enhance the autonomy of the anti-graft agencies and provide them the necessary incentives to make them less vulnerable to corrupt in ducement.
“We are of the firm belief that Nigeria is too endowed and blessed for any of our citizens to live in abject poverty. We are a hardworking and talented people destined for greatness. We are determined to offer the visionary and creative leadership to help actualize Nigeria’s immense potentials. We do not delude ourselves that we are supermen with the magic wand to miraculously solve all our country’s problems. But what I solemnly pledge is the determination to select the best and brightest talents in Nigeria to help our country achieve her manifest destiny for the good of her people and the glory and pride of the black man.
“To help actualize this, I urge you to turn out in large numbers on Saturday to vote for Kashim Shettima and I on the platform of the APC.”
155 North’s Christian leaders pledge support
One hundred and fifty-five Christian leaders from the North have thrown their weight behind the ticket of the All Progressive Congress (APC) candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and his running mate, Senator Kashim Shettima.
Among them are serving and former governors, incumbent and one-time federal and state lawmakers, academics and captains of industry.
Their endorsement was contained a message titled: “The Patriotic Voice of Northern Christian Minorities.”
The message was signed by Minister of Special Duties Senator George Akume. The former Benue State governor signed in his capacity as Convener.
Other signatories are Plateau State Governor Simon Lalong, former Governors Jolly Nyame (Taraba) and Joshua Dariye (Plateau).
The endorsement came as a boost to the chances of the APC standard bearer at Saturday’s poll.
The leaders urged Nigerians, particularly in the North, to shun ethnicity, religion or regional bias while exercising their civic duty.
They said that the duo on the APC ticket have track records of performance when they held sway as governors in their respective states of Lagos and Borno and as representatives of their senatorial districts in the National Assembly.
They said their decision, which came from careful and extensive consultations, was based on their passion and determination to move the country forward.
According to them, Nigeria needs performers like Tinubu and Shettima, hence, their resolve to support their ticket without any hesitation.
They said: “As we approach the 2023 Presidential election, Nigerians need to see the candidates, not with eyes of ethnicity, religion, or regional bias. Rather, our focus should be on who is better qualified in terms of capacity and patriotism to build on the achievements of the out-going administration and deliver a better tomorrow.
The APC presidential candidate, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is a completely detribalized Nigerian, religiously tolerant, and productively matchless.
“As a former governor of Lagos State, he was able to harness the human potential of the State, irrespective of tribe and religion, to draw up a blueprint for Lagos State and began the implementation of the same.
“Today, Lagos State is recognized as the fourth largest economy on the African continent. It is our firm belief and conviction that what Asiwaju did for Lagos can be replicated for the entire nation.
“We, the Christian minorities of the North affirm our belief in the ability and competence of this ticket to deliver to Nigerians the blueprint it has presented for the prosperity of all. After all, we did it in 1993 with the Abiola/Kingibe ticket with huge success.
“We appeal to all Nigerian voters who believe in the principles of our heroes’ past, to vote these proven performers into office on the 25th of February, 2023.
“Let us not be distracted by those who believe that the way to victory is to tear Nigeria apart on the basis of tribe and religion. If you want the best, you have to vote for the best.
“Our collective responsibility to a greater Nigeria for our children is by standing shoulder to shoulder with the most experienced Tinubu/Shettima combination. Nigeria deserves a purposeful, innovative, decisive, determined, dependable, and progressive leadership.
“The cap for good governance fits Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Nigeria needs the Tinubu/Shettima winning team of excellence through experience for service to our country.”
‘Tinubu’s opponents will be shocked’
APC-PCC has said opponents of its presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, will be in shock when the results of Saturday’s election are fully announced.
The campaign council said it was confident that with the hard work the ruling party put into its campaigns and the widespread acceptance and endorsements its candidate enjoys across the country, other flag bearers would be roundly defeated.
It particularly expressed worry about the conduct of Labour Party (LP) supporters, saying they have shown the propensity for violence.
The APC also expressed fears that LP supporters, popularly called “Obidients”, may be shocked by the defeat of their presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi, when realities nullify the pollsters that projected him as the preferred winner.
The Special Adviser on Media and Strategic Communications to the PCC, Mr. Dele Alake, stated this at the APC campaign headquarters yesterday in Abuja.
The former Lagos State Information and Strategy commissioner said pre-election polls conducted by pro-Obi pollsters, which projected their candidate as the winner of the forthcoming presidential election, were simply setting the stage for violence.
“The polls were whipping up the sentiments of Obi supporters and putting them on the tenterhooks, on a leash, so that when they lose the elections, they can resort to violence.
“This is why we have alerted the security agencies to the possibility of ‘Obidients’ taking to violence after losing the election,” he said.
The APC PCC said the contest is between Asiwaju Tinubu and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
It added that even Atiku, a former Vice President, would be roundly defeated on Saturday.
Alake, who described the activities of the pollsters as a “cocktail of nebulous opinion polls”, argued that the polls had oscillated between the sublime and the most ridiculous.
“We want to state categorically here that those polls will only lead to despair, despondency, utter shame and disappointment because the pollsters only took a flight of fancy.
“There is no evidence and reality on the ground anywhere in Nigeria as far as the presidential election is concerned that supports Mr. Obi winning this election. Labour Party has no pathway to victory.
“This presidential election is going to be a straight contest between the candidates of APC and PDP. And, from more studious and rational polling, our candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is coasting home to victory, despite the current challenges in the implementation of the currency swap and fuel scarcity that have caused some difficulties for almost all Nigerians, regardless of social and economic status.
“We particularly find amusing the ANAP/NOI and Nextier polls that projected Mr. Obi as the winner or preferred candidate to win the presidential election. We have had cause to alert the security agencies to keep these pollsters under watch because they intend to prepare grounds for unrest by giving false hopes of winning to Mr. Obi’s motley crowd of supporters who have a predilection for violence with the way they bully, harass, intimidate and insult anyone who thinks differently from them,” he said.
Four parties, five governorship candidates pledge support
Political parties in four states in the Southwest have collapsed their structures to work for the victory of the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in Saturday’s election.
The political parties – Allied Peoples Movement (APM), Young Progressives Party (YPP), Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), and Action Democratic Party (ADP), which are members of the Southwest Alliance of Registered Political Parties – said they had agreed to work for Asiwaju Tinubu’s electoral victory.
The Lagos State Chairman of Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), Mobolaji Olusegun, of the YPP, announced this during the Lagos Youth Stakeholders’ Parley organised by the Office of the Lagos APC Youth Leader yesterday in Ikeja.
He was accompanied by Osun State IPAC Chairman Simon Adebayo, of APM; his Ogun State counterpart, Samson Okusanya of PRP; and IPAC Chairman in Oyo State, Apostle Dare Ojo of ADP.
The Lagos IPAC Chairman, who addressed reporters on behalf of his colleagues, said the parties’ resolution was based on their conviction that Asiwaju Tinubu is the best among all the candidates in this year’s presidential election.
At the event, Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu urged the youths and other Nigerians, especially those with their Permanent Voter’s Cards (PVCs), to vote en masse for Asiwaju Tinubu.
Sanwo-Olu, who was represented by Deputy Governor Obafemi Hamazat, said Nigeria needs a bold and courageous man, like Asiwaju Tinubu, to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari.
He said: “To rebuild this country, we need somebody who has vision, boldness, courage, and is ready to fight for the interest of the people. We need credible leaders in our country. “What we need is a man like Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, who has the courage and boldness to make decisions and stand by them. Asiwaju is taller than all the other presidential candidates because of his vision. We need somebody who can think outside the box to protect all of us.”
Also, five governorship candidates of different political parties yesterday adopted Asiwaju Tinubu as their preferred presidential candidate in Saturday’s election.
The governorship candidates said they were confident Asiwaju Tinubu’s presidency would unite Nigeria, develop its component parts and usher in greater prosperity for the nation and its people.
They are: Olaniyi Ajekiigbe of the Action Alliance (AA), Mojeed Okedara of the African Action Congress (AAC), Dr. Kazeem Ayandoye of the Action Peoples Party (APP) and Tunde Olukade of the Booth Party.
The Oyo State Young Peoples Party (YPP) Chairman, Prince Adedeji Adeyemi, was represented by his vice, Chief Adesola Adedeji, at a media briefing where the governorship candidates endorsed the APC flag bearer.
The five governorship candidates, who were guests of an Ibadan-born billionaire businessman and frontline promoter of the Tinubu presidency, Chief Dotun Sanusi, addressed reporters yesterday in Ibadan, the state capital.
Sanusi had organised series of rallies in Ibadan for Asiwaju Tinubu’s presidential ambition.
Okedara said: “I am giving my support to Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and I have directed my people to do same. Our supporters are to vote en masse for Asiwaju Tinubu on Saturday because he shares our manifestos in terms of infrastructures, youth empowerment, education, health care delivery and security for all Nigerians.
“The APC leaders have reviewed my manifestos online and they expressed willingness to adopt them in line with the APC agenda to transform Nigeria. So, we are voting the Asiwaju Tinubu and Senator Kashim Shettima ticket on Saturday.”
All the other governorship candidates affirmed their resolve to work for Asiwaju Tinubu’s victory.
SOURCE- NATION
