Ahead of the 2023 presidential elections, the standard bearer of the All Progressives Congress APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Wednesday visited the national secretariat of his party alongside his running mate, Senator Kashim Shettima, and slammed the Labour Party LP Presidential candidate, Mr Peter Obi for falsifying economic statistics to woo gullible Nigerians.
This was as it emerged that the Tinubu and the NWC have agreed on certain grey areas regarding the composition of the APC Presidential Campaign Council.
Speaking at the end of the closed-door meeting, Tinubu stated that although it is a herculean task to uphold democracy in Nigeria, the APC stands unthreatened by the activities of critics, adding that it is committed to advancing rapid development and inclusiveness in Nigeria.
He said details regarding developmental projects he intends to carry out in the country would be divulged after the 2023 presidential election is over.
Tinubu said this when he fielded questions from journalists after he and his running mate, Kashim Shettima, Femi Gbajabiamila, speaker of the House of Representatives and other party chieftains, were received by the Senator Abdullahi Adamu-led National Working Committee, NWC.
He said; “We are not threatened. We are committed and we are very proud of ourselves, we are of an orderly manner, we are committed to democratic principles and values; we are not bickering in any way and you know that. Can you say that of the other parties? We are not spewing fake statistics and wrong figures. Can you say that of other parties? Well, we are what we are, a progressive party.
“It is a new horizon and we assure them that every Nigerian will benefit I am very sure that there will be a refreshing change and we will continue development in a rapid way.
“Let the election be over. That is one step. We have to comply with INEC and regulations regarding the elections, when we finish that, we will unveil to you those things that we have for the country and our objectives, our creed, our commitment should be development and our commitment to transformation, and our determination to bring help to the teeming Nigerians.
“To all the members in attendance that day (of a primary election), we want to say thank you. We have come together as a political party and we have taken progressivism as our doctrine. We have to be progressive in our thinking, our deeds and our objective to serve the country.
“Yes, I admit that democracy is a challenging, very hard and difficult system to manage. We have seen challenges left and right outside the international sphere of politics, but we are determined to ensure that we democratise Nigeria fully and remain a beacon of democracy as the largest nation of the black race in the world.”
Commending Senator Adamu, Tinubu urged party members to remain progressive in their thinking.
Tinubu, however, refuted rumours of existing quarrels between himself and the party’s chairman, adding that Adamu would deliver greatly.
Turning to Adamu, he said; “Thank you so much for the good job you have been doing. I sincerely thank you for the cooperation and collaboration particularly the chairman for the various wisdom and interactions that we have been having together.
“To the rumour manufacturers, I read in some papers about disagreements between myself and the chairman and that was a very big lie. They didn’t know that we have come a long way. The big masquerade dance is not in the cage but in the market square. And that is what Adamu used to be, full of wisdom, we were governors together before God put us together on this project again. He is going to deliver as the Chairman of the party for me to become the president of Nigeria. And I am very confident of that.
“They can say whatever they want to say, throw all the jabs that they want, we are a party strongly determined to fulfil our dreams of turning Nigeria into a very progressive, highly developed, prosperous country”, he said.
On his part, Adamu said: “there was a gap in time before this meeting due to tradition and practice. We had a brief meeting before we came to the minefield.
“We had some briefs from the presidential candidate. These briefs are very useful and important.”
