AS the 2023 electioneering process reaches its peak, presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu; his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party (LP) counterparts, Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi, have unveiled more packages they said would wriggle Nigeria out of the economic, social and security morass it is enmeshed in.
The trio reeled out their governance plans yesterday at their parties’ campaign rallies in Kaduna, Jos, and Lokoja respectively.
The 2023 general election is billed to commence on February 25 2023, about 73 days from today, beginning with the presidential poll.
Speaking at the official flag off of the presidential campaign for the North West region at the Ahmadu Bello Stadium in Kaduna, Tinubu assured the people of the state and the entire Nigerians that he would eliminate kidnappers, killers and all troublemakers when he becomes president of the country in 2023.
The presidential hopeful thanked the people for remaining loyal and faithful to the party, assuring them that they will never regret it.
“In Shaa Allah, all those trouble makers, all those kidnappers, killers who are troubling the security of Kaduna and Northern Nigeria, I assure you, we will eliminate them,” he said.
Tinubu who told the cheering crowd he was in Kaduna to seek their support to become Nigeria’s president said he has the track record of bringing alive the hopes of the citizenry with people-oriented governance.
He stated: “With your support, my team and I will improve the economy, secure the peace, promote industry, grow more food and create more and better jobs for the average person.
“Given the opportunity, we shall reform the power sector such that light is brought into every home and productive work afforded every pair of willing hands.
“My administration will improve the education system for all our children including those who seem to have been rejected and forgotten and renew hope nationwide.
“Those who till the soil and grow our food will be helped to produce more and earn more. You farmers who feed this nation, your dignity and pride will be restored.”
On his administration’s plans to massively industrialise the nation, the former Lagos State governor said, “Our industrial policy will make industries hum again. Meanwhile, we shall give the youth the training, access and policy support to explore new economic frontiers in the digital economy and other uses of technology to create new goods and services that benefit the entire population.
“Our infrastructural policy will promote nationwide road and rail transport, enabling small businesses to easily transport their goods across state-lines and engage in productive trade throughout the land. Federal roads, especially the Abuja – Kaduna – Zaria – Kano Road, will be turned into productive and safe highways for travel and commerce.
“Bringing jobs and cheaper power for your homes and business, the AKK gas pipeline completion will be a top priority, helping to literally fuel the region’s economy.
“We shall bring order to the mining industry discouraging illegal and dangerous mining, and promoting legal mining to bring better jobs, economic prosperity and security to Kaduna.”
Tinubu noted these will help achieve his administration’s goal of achieving a double-digit economy growth which will see “bringing the most talented hands on deck regardless of their gender, tribe, age or affiliation”
He commended Governor Nasir El-Rufai for doing a good job in Kaduna and giving the state a befitting facelift, just as he urged the electorate to vote all candidates of the APC all through.
Earlier, the national chairman of the APC, Senator Abdulllahi Adamu, expressed appreciation to the people of Kaduna State for turning out en-mass to receive their Presidential Candidate.
“We are overwhelmed by this flood, not flood of water, but of human beings who have come out to receive our Presidential Candidate. We have nothing else to say, because you have spoken for us with this large turn out that we have seen. I am not surprised though, because when we talk about the North, we must talk about Kaduna. Kaduna is the navel of the North”, he stated.
On his part, the PDP presidential candidate for 2023 election Atiku Abubakar, vowed to address infrastructure deficit if elected president, saying despite the strategic position of Plateau State in the country, roads linking it with other parts of the country have become death traps and unmotorable.
Speaking in Jos, the Plateau State capital, during the presidential campaign flag-off for Plateau State yesterday, the former vice president said the federal government has ignored Plateau State in the award of road contracts despite the potential of the state. “This too will be revisited by the PDP government if elected in 2023. Other roads such as Lafia-Shendam road will also be rehabilitated to enhance commerce and industrialization,” he noted.
He lamented that despite being an APC state, Plateau State was only given the sports and women portfolios in the eight years of APC administration, adding that if elected he would turn around the fortune of federal institutions in the state such as the National Veterinary Research Institute (NVRI) and others which have become a shadow of their former selves in the eight years of APC rule on account of neglect.
The PDP presidential flag-bearer also pointed out that in a bid to unleash the full potential of the state, his administration would revisit the Kura falls power generation plant, recalling how the plant was serving the whole of Plateau State and beyond.
He added that his administration would seek to enhance every possibility of development, upscale governance and enhance service delivery.
Atiku also said the PDP led government will regulate mining activities to protect farmlands, the environment against pollution and erosion, protect the people living around the mines and ensure that the local population directly benefits from such mining activities through enhanced incomes, credible compensations and corporate social responsibility.
National chairman of the party, Dr Iyorchia Ayu, called on Plateau people to re-embrace PDP to earn their suffering in the hands of the APC.
We Will Save Nigeria From Collapse, Obi Vows
Also, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, said his party is out to save Nigeria from collapsing.
Obi spoke yesterday at a rally held at the Confluence Stadium, Lokoja, Kogi State, which witnessed an unprecedented crowd of supporters.
He said, “We came here to tell you how we will save Nigeria from collapsing. Today in Kogi State you cannot travel freely within the state or from here to Abuja without fear. Our number one job is to secure Nigeria.
“We want to make Nigeria safe. We want to be able to unite Nigeria. Nigerians today are not living as a family. We want to bring the family back; we want to secure Nigeria. We want to show that in Nigeria, there’s rule of law. You are not harassed.
“We want to make sure that we would remove Nigeria from consumption to production. We told you about minimum wage; we will ensure that the minimum wage that is as of today and those who are owed, we will work with that state and the local government to clear the outstanding. We would make sure that we work with them and when we stop consumption. We will start thinking about how to continue to increase the minimum wage because the minimum wage today can no longer sustain anybody”.
Obi observed that for Nigeria to develop, the country needs steel.
“I was told that the machine is outdated and I said if it is outdated can’t we get new one? If it is outdated we would make sure we resuscitate them and we will partner with whoever that can do it and bring new ones so it can work and we will create jobs,” he noted.
Calling on Nigerians to reject money politics, Obi said, “Reject their money. We can only tell you what we can do. We are not talking to you through any spokesperson. We are talking to you directly. When I become president of Nigeria, I will come to Kogi State, tour every senatorial zone and I will bring prosperity to your state. We will ensure that the people return to the farms. The vast land in the state can feed Nigeria”.
Also speaking, the vice presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Datti Ahmed, said a special thing was coming to Nigerians if they vote for the labour party.
“99 days is for the thief but one day is for the owner. That one day is coming; that one special thing is going to happen to Nigeria.
“That one day that Nigeria will belong to the people is coming. For too long, clever politicians have been confusing brothers and sisters; they have been disuniting Nigerians. For too long, they have disallowed prosperity to Nigeria. That is going to stop. We are here to change all these, we are here to stop them.”
On his part, the National chairman, of Labour Party, Julius Abure, said Nigeria is at a crossroads.
Stop Diversionary Tactics, Address The Allegations, Atiku Tells Tinubu
Atiku also asked his APC counterpart, Tinubu, to provide answers surrounding his shady past rather than resort to diversionary tactics.
Speaking through the Atiku/Okowa presidential campaign, the ex-VP added that Tinubu and his bully handlers should face his self-inflicted woes instead of attempting to play the victim just to divert public attention from his very unpleasant past.
A statement signed by spokesman of his campaign team, Kola Ologbondiyan, noted: “It is reprehensible and unmistakable sign of culpability that Asiwaju Tinubu and his campaigners have desperately resorted to bullying, intimidating and harassing media houses and journalists with a view to silence and stop them from questioning Asiwaju Tinubu on allegations of perjury, forgery, corruption, massive treasury-looting and reported link to narcotics for which he forfeited a whooping sum of $460,000 through the Order of a Court of competent jurisdiction in the United States of America.
“We therefore consider this diversionary approach by the Tinubu/Shettima Campaign as a very unwholesome and unacceptable assault on the very bedrock of democracy which is the right of the people to know, through a free press.”
Atiku said Tinubu, having decided to contest to be president of Nigeria, must prepare to explain himself to the littlest of Nigerians as well as the media which has the basic constitutional responsibility to seek information on behalf of every Nigerian.
He added that it is irresponsible, thoughtless and incautious that the Tinubu/Shettima Campaign will abandon its responsibility of assisting its Candidate to offer explanation, rather than attacking media houses and demanding the sack of media practitioners for performing their professional and constitutional duties.”
“The action of the TInubu/Shettima Campaign Organization further confirms that Asiwaju Tinubu lacks democratic credentials and has no business contesting for the office of the President of a country like Nigeria where citizens are resolute in their demand for a credible and acceptable leader, who has no skeleton of narcotics hidden in his cupboard.
“Indeed, Asiwaju Tinubu has shown that he does not possess the qualities of the leader Nigerians are yearning for at this critical time of our history.
“Our campaign urges Asiwaju Tinubu to note that his diversionary tactic and attack on the media will not stop Nigerians from raising the necessary posers.”
FG Knocks Atiku Over Comment On Boko Haram’s Existence
In another development, the federal government yesterday took a swipe at former Atiku over a statement credited to him in which he expressed surprise at the existence of Boko Haram insurgents in the country.
This is even as the federal government assured that it will bequeath to Nigerians 4,000MW of additional generating capacity and will complete and commission the 700MW Zungeru Hydro Power Plant in the 1st quarter of 2023.
The presidential candidate of the opposition PDP was quoted as saying that he could not understand the Boko Haram phenomenon, even as he wondered why Boko Haram has continued to operate.
But reacting to his claim, minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, asked Atiku to throw the question to his party, PDP “under whose watch the Boko Haram insurgency started in 2009 and festered.”
The minister spoke at the 11th edition of the President Muhammadu Buhari Scorecard Series (2015-2023)’ organised to showcase the achievements of the Buhari administration yesterday in Abuja.
The edition featured the minister of Power, Aliyu Abubakar, who gave the scorecard of the ministry in the past seven years.
In his opening remark, Mohammed said for six years, until 2015 when the Buhari administration assumed office and inherited Boko Haram, the PDP more or less nurtured the insurgents to the monster they later became.
He said, “Alhaji Atiku should ask his party why it allowed Boko Haram to operate freely, bombing cities, motor parks, schools, and other soft targets unrestrained.
“Alhaji Atiku, who was then residing in Abuja before porting to his new abode in Dubai, should ask his party, the PDP, while it allowed Boko Haram to bomb the police headquarters, the UN complex, a shopping mall and motor parks in Abuja with so much ease.”
The minister said with the efforts and sacrifices of the Nigerian military, normalcy had been achieved in the North East, the home region of Boko Haram.
He said the Boko Haram terrorists had been cleared from most of their strongholds while the remnants were being restricted to the Tumbus Island around the Lake Chad that were difficult to access.
The minister admonished Atiku to, while campaigning and throwing political jabs, “take note of the popular idiom that people who live in glass houses should not throw stones”.
