Adedokun Waliyu 
Vice Presidential candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC), Alhaji Kashim Shettima, on Wednesday, visited the Hausa community in Alaba-Rago, Lagos State and urged them to vote for the party’s presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, saying 2023 election is time for the North to pay the APC standard bearer back for his past support for the region.
Shettima was accompanied by Lagos State governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu; his Kano State counterpart, Abdullahi Ganduje; Lagos APC Chairman, Cornelius Ojelabi, and all Arewa leaders in Lagos.
According to Shettima, whose visit to the community witnessed a huge turnout, Tinubu made Muhammadu Buhari president in 2015 by giving him bloc votes from the South-West, saying that the former Lagos State governor repeated the same feat in 2019.
He said before then, Tinubu had in 2007 provided the platform for Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, to contest the presidential election when Atiku, then Vice President of Nigeria was chased out of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), recalling also that it was the same thing he did for Nuhu Ribadu in 2011 presidential poll.
“We are people of honour, we should honour our pledge and promise. This is payback time for the North to support Tinubu,” Shettima said.
Ganduje said as far as the North was concerned, the issue of throwing support for Tinubu “is concluded,” describing the APC standard bearer as “a real nationalist,” who he said appointed non-Yoruba indigenes into government when he was governor of Lagos State.
“Kano State wants votes from you for Tinubu. You have to promise us you will surpass Kano in your votes for Tinubu,” the governor said.
Sanwo-Olu, in his own remark, urged the Hausa community in the state not to be deceived and further urged them to vote for APC both in the presidential and governorship elections, come 2023.
