By Samuel Oyadongha, Emem Idio, Charly Agwam & Ogalah Ibrahim
THE Director General of the Presidential Campaign Council, PCC, of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State, has declared that Bauchi State, like other times, will vote for the APC Presidential Candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and his running mate, Senator Kashim Shettima.
Governor Lalong, who accompanied President Muhammadu Buhari, Tinubu and other APC chiefs to Bauchi State for a presidential campaign rally, yesterday, said that he and his team are committed to ensuring Tinubu’s election on February 25.
“We have no choice but to support the Tinubu-Shettima presidential ticket because that is what Mr President wants. He wants a good successor and he has found that in Bola Ahmed Tinubu. We have an assemblage of the best candidates across the country.
“Bauchi belongs to Mr President, he always won here and he will win for APC again,” he said.
APC govs’re behind Tinubu — Bagudu
Also speaking, Chairman of the Progressives Governors Forum, Atiku Bagudu, assured that APC governors will work for the victory of Tinubu and other APC candidates across the country.
The Kebbi State Governor said that the Progressive Governors of the APC-led Federal Government had done a lot in terms of infrastructural development across the country assuringthat the party under Tinubu will continue a good job.
His words: “For 16 years, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP could not deliver any positive thing in the country. The APC under President Muhammadu Buhari discovered oil in Bauchi and Gombe as well as in Nasarawa states. We need continuation of this beyond 2023.”
Turning to President Muhammadu Buhari, he claimed that the president has been able to fix the country since he took over the office in 2015.
“Over the years, you have been busy fixing Nigeria. When the entire world stopped, Nigeria did not. When the economic recession set in for two years, things continued to work out in Nigeria. You have managed Nigeria very well,” he praised the president who seemed pleased with his comment.
Meanwhile, some APC supporters left the venue of the presidential campaign rally in sadness as Tinubu could not address them following a malfunction of the public address system at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Stadium in Bauchi.
The massive crowd of supporters who waited for up to four hours before President Buhari’s arrival, trooped in from various states of the Northeast to fill the stadium to capacity to welcome their August visitors.
However, the supporters started leaving the venue when the public address system failed to produce sound during President Buhari’s speech.
The visibly disillusioned President Buhari and Tinubu who were invited to the podium to address the crowd could no longer do so as the disappointed crowd were already on their way out.
While waiting for the technicians in charge of sound, President Buhari and the National Chairman of the party, Abdullahi Adamu waived at the remaining supporters, while also endorsing the APC Bauchi State Governorship Candidate after which they filed out to their waiting convoy for departure. Efforts to get a reaction from officials over the development proved abortive as calls and text messages put across to the Publicity Secretary were not taken or replied to.
Atiku reaffirms commitment to restructuring, uniting Nigeria
Meanwhile, the presidential Candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has again declared his commitment to restructuring the country, especially the devolution of more powers and resources to states.
Atiku, who spoke on Monday, at the presidential campaign rally of the PDP at the iconic Oxbow Lake Pavillion, Swali in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State Capital, promised to end the lingering fuel crisis in the country by building more refineries.
Describing Bayelsa as a PDP State that has produced governors and a president, he also assured the mammoth crowd that thronged the campaign ground that his administration would tackle the incessant strikes by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, in the country by increasing funding for the education sector.
He said: “I want to remind you, since the beginning of democracy in 1999, Bayelsa State has been PDP and PDP has been Bayelsa. Everything you see in Bayelsa State today was provided by PDP governments. Therefore, I am calling on you, the people of Bayelsa State, not to make the mistake of leaving PDP. You have provided governors and president and many more shall come. So, the future of Bayelsa State and Nigeria is tied to PDP.
“I want to appeal to you, if you have listened to my programmes, I said I am committed to implementing five key programmes in this country, starting with the unification of this country because this country has never been this divided along a number of frontiers. I am going to give every part of this country a sense of belonging in the next PDP government.
“I promise to tackle insecurity, here in Bayelsa State, you have faced a number of security challenges, you have lost so many people due to breaches in law and order. I promise I will restore security in this country.
“Thirdly, I said I am going to tackle the economy of this country. The PDP government, if you recalled 1999 to 2015 we had the best economy in Africa but the APC has come and pushed us back and brought us down. We promise that we will tackle the economy and make sure we provide jobs and opportunities for our young men and women to be gainfully employed either in the private or public sector.
“Again we promise that we will never see any more ASUU strikes, we will devolve a lot of resources to education to make sure that our young men and women are properly educated and continue to go to school without any interruption.
“Finally, we will restructure this country and give you more resources and powers to deal with your governance, so you don’t go begging the Federal Government to come and do things for you when you are actually producing the resources of the country. We will devolve more powers and resources to the Niger-Delta.
“These are the key areas of our developmental programmes. I appeal for your support and understanding, cooperation so that we can achieve all these goals,” he declared.
In his remarks, the PDP Vice Presidential Candidate, Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State, said the the PDP has never lost any presidential election since 1999 till date in Bayelsa, adding that Bayelsa State and the Niger-Delta States must give PDP a minimum of 700,000 and five million votes respectively.
Also speaking, the Senator representing Bayelsa West, Senator Seriake Dickson, said that Atiku should be elected president so as to implement his proposed policy of restructuring and power devolution.
He thanked Atiku for announcing him as his Technical Adviser on Restructuring and National Integration adding, “one of the most most important things is that Atiku should be elected so that he can restructure Nigeria.”
Dickson said: “If you want power devolution, if you want restructuring, Atiku is the man to support. Atiku has been part of the story of Bayelsa since 1999. I thank our leader for appointing me as his special adviser on Restructuring and National Integration.
“Nobody needs to preach to Atiku on restructuring Nigeria, he is an original believer and proponent of it.”
Also, Governor Douye Diri of Bayelsa State stated that Atiku is the only candidate who has been talking about resource control, and restructuring of the country which also dominate discussions in Ijaw nation.
He said with the election programmed to be conducted with BVAS, the youth and women are behind the PDP to deliver Atiku in February, describing the PDP Presidential candidate as President in waiting.
Others, who spoke including the party’s National Chairman, Iyorcha Ayu; the Director General of the PDP PCC, Governor Aminu Tambuwal (Sokoto); and Governor Emmanuel Udom (Akwa Ibom), assured that a PDP government at the federal level would ensure improvement in the quality of lives of Niger-Deltans and Nigerians.
Obi promises to tackle Insecurity, open borders
On his part, Labour Party, LP, Presidential Candidate, Mr Peter Obi, has assured that if elected he would first and foremost tackle insecurity before reopening the country’s border as part of measures to tame the current hardship being experienced by citizens.
According to the former Anambra Governor, a vote for him and his running mate, Datti Baba-Ahmed will usher in a new Nigeria where insecurity and poverty will be a thing of the past.
Obi made the declaration at the Muhammadu Dikko Stadium, Katsina State, during his presidential campaign rally, on Monday.
He also assured that unlike past elected governments that took the country for a ride, his administration will not deceive Nigerians.
His words: “Ahmed Datti and I have chosen to build a new Nigeria. In that new Nigeria, security will be our number one priority so as to ensure that we secure the people. When we have security, we will open the borders. Ours is to fight poverty.
“We can’t fight poverty without security and without opening the border. We will fight the insecurity and poverty in Katsina State and the entire Nigeria by making sure we pull the country out of poverty. We will make sure that people stop suffering and that’s what we are begging you to let us do.
“You have always voted but you will agree with me that the people you have been voting for have been deceiving you. But here we are begging you and assuring you that if you vote for us you will see a new Nigeria.
“A new Nigeria where there will not be insecurity; a new Nigeria where there will be no poverty. That’s what we are begging you to let us do.
“We assure you of our commitment and if you listen to us and do the right thing you will have a Nigeria where your children yourself will be happy to say we live in our country.”
