2023/ill health: Tinubu not for Olympics, Shettima slams critics

The immediate past governor of Borno state and serving federal lawmaker, Senator Kashim Shettima, has told those criticising the health condition of former Lagos state governor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, that the latter is not preparing for an Olympic game but Nigeria presidency.!!

Asiwaju Tinubu had made his intention known publicly to contest 2023 presidential election when he met President Muhammadu Buhari recently.

The former Lagos state governor said occupying the nation’s number one seat had been his lifelong ambition.

Speaking at a conference organised by Support Groups Management Council (SGMC) in support of Tinubu’s presidential ambition, Shettima described as a futile ambition those criticising the national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on issue of his health condition and other matters.

About 2,500 Tinubu support groups from across the country were represented by delegates at the conference.

The former Borno governor openly asked those he called “The Buhari’s Church of Later Days Saints” where they were when Tinubu “In 2015, some aspirants with very huge war chest were itching to cling the ticket of the APC, like the rock of Gibraltar, Asiwaju and his progressive team stood solidly behind the candidature of Presidency Muhamadu Buhari.

“We shall have minimal thresholds below which we won’t operate and the irreducible minimum is that after eight years of Presidency in the North, the logic, common sense, equity, justice and fairness demand that power should move to the Southern part of the country and who is better qualified? Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu should be given the choice of first refusal. More than any other person, he has sacrificed more for this democracy, for the APC.

“I’m not asking you to tone down critical assessments of your future leaders, but redirect you to see the bigger picture. We are not here to prepare for the Olympics, but an institution that relies on the superiority of ideas to thrive. Asiwaju’s credentials aren’t only appealing; they are proof of the qualities this country needs to redeem its vast potentials and possibilities.

“We are here to testify to this power of ideas—one that overturned the fortunes of Lagos state and sustained its supremacy as the largest economy in Sub-Saharan Africa and kept the opposition alive when it was more profitable to sell out.

“Those who seek to make us go low hope to present the presidency as a brick-laying exercise. But that’s the work of a machine created by an idea, and who else to guide us towards manufacturing the best ideas to redeem this country?

“The conversations we are prepared for aren’t pedestrian obsessions with the mundane, but comparisons of ideas and track records of service to the nation.

“At the top of our expectations from Nigeria’s next president should be mastery of the dynamics of the modern economy, testified leadership skills and competence, and, very significantly, sensitivity to the complexities of Nigerian sociology.”

Ex-SGF Babachir

For the former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Pastor Babachir Lawal, the ruling APC has derailed from the founding fathers’ ideal of a party and that the preferred   way to select the next presidential candidate of the party should be through direct primaries.

Lawal said: “We are neither offended nor threatened by whichever method the party chooses to adapt for the emergence of its presidential candidate. But of course, being democrats, we prefer a method that involves all the card carrying members of the party in this choosing process.

“The incapacity of the party to even harmonise and synergize policy direction of the federal government with that of States it controls, especially in key critical areas around which the campaigns were ran, speaks volumes about its incompetence.

“Compounding these problems in the last one year is the apparent hijacking of the party by a self-serving cabal who, driven by personal ambitions, have failed to organise even simple conflict-free Ward, Local Government, and State Congresses not to talk of a National Convention. As we speak, there are only a handful of states in the country that do not have parallel state executives.

“This is the current state of our party and it is in this environment that we gathered here must operate to deliver Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the party’s flag bearer at the 2023 presidential election. And this we will do be it through consensus, indirect or direct party primaries by the grace of God.”

 Ex-Rep Jibrin

Also speaking, Director General SGMC Abdulmumin Jibrin said 2023 is about the future of Nigeria and the best person to lead the country is Asiwaju Tinubu.

“We can’t take chances. We wanted the best hand. Yes, within the APC we have said repeatedly, we have very good hands. We have very good and competent and qualified people that can be President but we have someone that has an edge and beyond having an edge, we want someone that combines the competence, the qualification and the capacity, to win the election. And who has that the whole of that all combined? Asiwaju,” Jibrin said.

N/East support group

In a related development, the Tinubu Progressive Organisation has inaugurated its patrons and executives in the North-east region with a commitment to work for his victory in the forthcoming party primary and 2023 presidential election in general.

At the inauguration in Bauchi Monday, the North-east Coordinator of the group, Halilu Domdaz said Tinubu has all the requisite experience to bring the needed change through appropriate and exemplary leadership if given the mandate to lead the country.

He noted that “Tinubu’s tenure as governor of Lagos state landed positive changes in the state and his transparency, focused and result oriented Leadership made him to became a reference point in public discourse.”

Domdaz said: “Fellow compatriots, we have no better than time than now, to vindicate our national leader “a kingmaker can also be a king”. The truth remains that unless power is given to a person like Bola Ahmed Tinubu to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari, then this great country of ours will not move forward.

“We are all living witnesses of how Bola Tinubu and other stakeholders in our blessed party effectively strategized, organized, mobilized and galvanized support for President Muhammadu Buhari, culminating in his overwhelmed victory at the 2015 and 2019 presidential polls.”

Describing the former lawmaker as one to take Nigeria out of the woods and consolidate on Buhari’s achievements, the Tinubu campaigner called on Nigerians to give his their support.

In his message, the National Coordinator, Tinubu Progressive Organisation, Engineer Lawal Bello congratulated the new executives of the group in the North-east and challenged them to work assiduously in order to assist in achieving the set objectives.

Engineer Bello said the Tinubu progressive organisation would soon unveil its nationwide campaign plans to seek for the support and cooperation of Nigerians for Tinubu as their preferred choice.