Tinubu to APC candidates: You need me like I need you for election victory

The presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Sunday met with the governorship and National Assembly candidates of the party ahead of the upcoming general elections.

Tinubu, who said he had been eager to meet with the party’s candidates, urged them to ensure they do not disappoint party members who elected them to fly its tickets at the polls.

With the many unproductive years of the former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)-led government, he said Nigerians and indeed members of the APC were expecting a new lease of life from the candidates.

Speaking at the meeting in Abuja, Tinubu said: “I am pleased to meet with you today because in you I see our party’s hope and path to success. In you I see the hope of historic national progress as well.

“As so often in life, victory is not a cause for rest or celebration. It is a call to a greater challenge and harder toil. Thus, you all have won the primaries but now must climb the higher mountain called the general elections.”

“We formed the APC, not just to be another political party. We formed it as a champion of the people to rescue democracy from the ravages of the PDP who boasted of ruling the nation for 60 years.

“We formed this party to rescue the people and their collective prosperity from the avarice and greed of an elite that will devour the nation’s God-given endowment if we allow such people back into power.  As those flying our party’s flag, we carry a heavy burden on our shoulders.

“We have the mandate to deliver the party to victory so that we may protect Nigeria from those who would devour all of its fruits.

“The party has placed its trust in us. Democratic victory in the coming elections is a task we must accomplish,” he added.

The presidential front runner urged the party’s candidates to go to the polls starting from the presidential and national assembly elections February 25 to the governorship and state assembly elections March 11 with a united front.

“Everyone must collectively work for the party’s victory in all elections to ensure that the party’s project of growth and development for the nation is assured,” the party’s standard flag bearer further said.

While promising to continue working for all the candidates, Tinubu said: “But winning takes us working as a united force. We have to act like the broom, the symbol of our party. A stick cannot clean any dirt but coming together under the band as one, we can sweep aside all the bad and wrong things that impede our nation’s growth and development.

“As individuals we must strive to win our respective elections. But that is not enough. We have to work together to deliver everyone contesting in our party. The presidential election, for example, is not solely about Bola Ahmed Tinubu. It is your project as well. Your election is equally my project.

“We need each other. Whatever position you are contesting, you need me as much as I need you. If I work for you, I am helping myself; if you mobilize for me, you are working for yourself at the same time. Our individual and collective fates are one. Let us win and rise together.  This is as it should be.

“I therefore rededicate myself to the victory of you all just as I do for myself. As you can see, they call me weak but I am canvassing back and forth and, in every corner, and space of the nation. My opponents are not. I am outworking them because this election is a great mission for me, much more than my personal ambition.

“I too ask you all to re-dedicate yourself to the cause of the party and the future of the nation. I cannot be everywhere, no one can.

“Our strength lies in our number and our spread. Having you across the length spread of this country makes me comfortable. I am working round the clock for our collective victory. We all should not rest until the entire election is over and victory is ours.

“The meeting, which attracted a large number of the candidates, was also attended by the party’s National Chairman, Abdullahi Adamu, Senate President Ahmed Lawan, Speaker House of Representatives Femi Gbajabiamila, many governors of the party as well as members of the National Working Committee and Presidential Campaign Council.

Atiku will record sweeping victory

The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar’s Campaign Organisation has commended the people of Kogi state for coming out with unprecedented crowd in solidarity at the state rally held in Lokoja on Saturday.

Atiku campaign in a statement by its spokesperson, Kola Ologbondiyan, Sunday said the support demonstrated by the people of Kogi State, especially the youths further confirms their decisiveness to vote PDP’s candidate as the next President of Nigeria.

The statement read in part: “Our Campaign appreciates the support of various groups including professionals in various fields, government workers, traditional institutions, faith-based groups, business community, traders, artisans, transporters, farmers among others towards Atiku Abubakar and the PDP.

“The people of Kogi State amply demonstrated that Kogi, just like majority of the States of the federation, is home to the PDP and that Atiku Abubakar will record a sweeping victory across Kogi State and others to emerge victorious at the first ballot at the close of the February 25th presidential poll.

“Our campaign salutes the courage, resilience and energy which the youths of the State displayed at the rally, which signposts their preparedness to come out en masse to vote for Atiku Abubakar on February 25, 2023 and to stand in defence of their votes to the very end.

“The people of Kogi State, like majority of millions of Nigerians in other States, have rejected the incompetent, violent, corrupt and anti-people All Progressives Congress (APC) and its Presidential Candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and they are eager to vote in Atiku Abubakar and the PDP which embody their hope, aspiration and determination for a better nation.

“The Campaign charges the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and security agencies to note the feelings and aspiration of the majority of the people and take steps to ensure free, fair, secure and credible elections across the nation.

“The Atiku/Okowa Campaign however urges Nigerians to continue to mobilize for Atiku Abubakar ahead of the elections while reminding those that are yet to pick up their Permanent Voter Cards to do so in the collective desire to end the misery which the All Progressives Congress (APC) has come to represent.”