· Why I Will Continue Campaigning For Tinubu- Buhari
· Pa Adebanjo, Bafarawa Say North Won’t Vote For Tinubu
The presidential ambition of Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the flagbearer of the All-Progressives Congress has received a breath of fresh air following the recent endorsement from President Muhammadu Buhari at the party’s campaign in Nasarawa State on Saturday.
Prior to now, Tinubu has been contending with a myriad of challenges with some of the policies implemented by the APC administration seen as factors that might count against the former Lagos State governor.
Aside from that, the opposition parties in the country have been quick to point out that the president was yet to officially endorse Tinubu.
All those were laid to rest on Saturday as the President described Tinubu as his trusted ally and called on the electorate to massively vote for Tinubu/Shettima ticket on Feb. 25.
Buhari, who spoke both in English and Hausa languages at the rally, dismissed assertions by the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that there is a crack within the ruling party while describing Tinubu as a tested and trusted political ally.
“I’m very pleased today to be part of this campaign for Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the next president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” he said.
“We will win through and through. I trust Tinubu’s dedication and service. I have known Bola Tinubu for more than 20 years. I will continue to campaign for him. He is a committed Nigerian and I believe he will give everything to make Nigeria better.
“He loves this country. He is a believer in Nigeria and I am sure he will do everything possible to advance the well-being of all of us as citizens. He will hold this country with trust. You should cherish him.”
”He will be a very good successor. Come out en masse and vote for Tinubu/Shettima ticket on Feb. 25 and you’ll never regret doing so,” he said.
Buhari’s statement comes amid reports of rancour in the APC, after Tinubu’s outburst during the party’s presidential rally in Ogun, where he expressed dissatisfaction over the fuel and currency scarcity in the country.
“Even if you change the ink on naira notes, what you want will not happen. We will win. That umbrella party will lose. We will take this government from them — saboteurs that are dragging power with us,” said Tinubu in Abeokuta, the capital of Ogun.
The president also called on the APC supporters to vote for all APC candidates in the February and March general elections including incumbent Gov. Abdullahi Sule.
The endorsement has been greeted with applause from some APC members on the social media.
According to Wasiu Adeshina, he opined that Tinubu is the best candidate for the job.
“The only capable hand for the next president of Nigeria is Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu who has been tested and trusted for good development. He has precedent as a governor of Lagos State he gives Lagos State the better master plan which is why many people from all over the country are trouping into Lagos State no presidential candidate among the candidate is better than Tinubu, he is the best man for the job God bless Nigeria” he wrote.
Meanwhile, fresh opposition are mounting against Tinubu as the leader of the pan-Yoruba sociopolitical group, Afenifere, Ayo Adebanjo, and former Sokoto State governor, Attahiru Bafarawa have both opined that the North won’t vote for Tinubu.
Pa Adebanjo on Saturday, advised the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu, to withdraw his candidacy to save himself from the shame of losing at the polls, saying the northers will not vote for him.
Adebanjo predicted that Tinubu would be disappointed by the northerners at the polls.
Adebanjo said, “All those that know Tinubu should tell him, I have always told him and I will tell him again, the northerners will not vote for him.
“He (Tinubu) should come back home now and support Obi because when they finally defeat him, he won’t have the courage to come back home again, if he comes back now, we will forgive him and take him back.
Similarly, Bafarawa while reacting to a comment by the Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai that there are no elders left in northern Nigeria questioned why El-Rufai believed that the north will vote for Tinubu.
The former governor was reacting to the Kaduna State Governor’s comment in his interview with the BBC.
“He was insisting that Tinubu must win the election, whether people like it or not, they have already won. Who told him that the whole of the North is supporting the APC?
“This is just his opinion, in that case, he has no right to insist on the North because everybody has his candidate.
“The way he is campaigning for Tinubu that is how we are campaigning for our candidate,” Bafarawa said.
Bafarawa insisted that an individual does not have the power to impose his candidate on other people, saying, “we will shock them, we will make them understand that this country belongs to nobody, likewise the North.”
