Adedokun Waliyu 
The presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu, has said the party has the people who have the wherewithal to continue to put Nigeria on the path of progress.
Tinubu stated this on Saturday in Abuja at the flag-off of the APC Northern Speakers Door to Door for Tinubu/Shettima 2023 which was held at the Sheraton Hotel and Towers, Abuja.
According to the presidential candidate, APC as a party of progressive ideas will continue to put Nigeria on the path of progress and sustain its legacy in the transportation sector, the agricultural sector and the education sector for the good of every Nigerian. He said the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) during its 16 years in power was responsible for where Nigeria finds itself today while promising that APC will make Nigeria work and great again.
“We are the party of progressive ideas. We want good education for our children, good development for Nigeria, prosperity for this country, agricultural and agro allied projects to be embarked upon. We have the confidence, we have what it takes, we have the courage, we have the determination, we have the perseverance, we have the foresight to identify Nigeria’s problem and take it headlong and make a solution out of it for the prosperity of your children and tomorrow. The job of your grandchildren and the progress of tomorrow have started right now,” he said.
He however added that with the likes of his running mate, Senator Kashim Shettima, the Director General of the APC Presidential Campaign Council for 2023 election and the governor of Plateau State, Governor Simon Lalong and other stakeholders, the party have a winning team that will deliver victory for the party come 2023. He also commended the APC Northern Speakers Forum for their doggedness and determination by coming out with a laudable project that will not only boost the chances of the APC in 2023 but record victory during the elections.
“If for calculation, we have the calculator, if for measurement, we have a Shettima. If for strategy and thinking, there is a governor here, we have Lalong. Why do we have to worry about them but just wait for the calendar, the day of the voting and we dig their graveyards and dump them there. We need not to worry about the PDP; Poverty Development Party. They spent 16 years and forget that there is a railway infrastructure that can do haulage, human carriage, animal husbandry and carriage, food carriage from length and breadth, from east and west of Nigeria. If they want to pose a problem, we are better at countering them because we are thinkers and doers.
“They got there; they turned the railway to an incubator for chickens and dirty field. I wonder why they still exist as a party. These are people still fighting for leadership of their party looking for the direction of the compass whether there is a rain or shine there. We are not equal at all. We are smarter, we know where to go,
“We know the road, let them follow. I need to see the upgrade and I have seen the upgrade of the winning percentage from the calculator. So, we are very honoured and proud of what you (the Speakers Forum) have done in donations and contributions. We want more men and women of goodwill to do the same for this election,” Tinubu stated.
Meanwhile, the vice presidential candidate of the APC, Senator Kashim Shettima, said 2023 elections should be the payback time for Tinubu for what he has done in the enthronement of democracy back to Nigeria and for his consistent stand for equity, justice and fairness in the country. He said Tinubu is a leader who believes in the unity of Nigeria and without him in 2015; President Muhammadu Buhari would not have become president.
Shettima added that the presidential candidate has deployed his time, made sacrifices and ensured that the likes of Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State, former Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole, former Ondo State Governor, Olusegun Mimiko, former Governor of Osun State and Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, retrieved their stolen mandates through the judiciary. He said the presidential candidate of the PDP for the 2023 election, former vice president Atiku Abubakar benefitted from Tinubu’s gesture when he was harassed and hounded out of the PDP in 2007 by former President Obasanjo and provided the defunct Action Congress platform for Atiku to contest.
“President Muhammadu Buhari wouldn’t have become the president in 2015 if not for Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. This gentleman invested his resources, his time and his goodwill in bringing forth the presidency of this country to another part of Nigeria and this is payback time. We need to build a new Nigeria. We need to build a new nation. And the future of this country rests on the quality of leaders we choose. Posterity will judge us harshly if we miss this opportunity of choosing a leader who possesses the quality of leadership that this country needs.
“He is a simple man with a large heart, a detribalised Nigerian who believes that everyone has a role to play in the Nigerian project. We all remembered the sacrifices that he made to ensure that the likes of Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State, former Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole, former Ondo State Governor, Olusegun Mimiko, former Governor of Osun State and Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, retrieved their stolen mandates through the judiciary,” Shettima added.
The forum of All Progressive Congress APC Northern State House of Assembly Speakers, through its chairman, Rt Hon Yusuf Ibrahim Zailani also assured the party’s presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, of its unalloyed support towards realising his presidential dreams in 2023.
Zailani who is also the Speaker, Kaduna State House of Assembly, said the legislators did not care where the Nigerian president comes from whether Muslim or Christian, Yoruba, Ibo or Hausa but a president that will deliver democratic dividends to Nigerians.
He said with over 205 elected members of the Houses of Assembly from the Northern part of the country, victory for Tinubu/Shettima is assured as the legislators will work assiduously to ensure that APC wins the presidential election in 2023.
“For us legislators, we did not care where Nigerian President comes from, whether he is Ibo, Yoruba or Hausa, whether he is a Muslim or Christian, but a president that will deliver democratic dividends to Nigerians. We want to guarantee you over 70% of votes from the North because we are fully on ground in our different states and constituencies. Don’t mind those sitting in Abuja and making noise, members of the state Houses of Assembly are on ground to support the Tinubu/Shettima ticket.
“We are going to use our little resources and will not collect any money from our presidential candidate or the governors as this is our own way of showing support to our party and our presidential candidate,” he said.
