Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, at the weekend, told members of his party that they needed not to worry about the posturing of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), because they were not equals in the first place and by all standards.
Tinubu, who spoke at the unveiling of the Tinubu/Shettima door-to-door campaign group in Abuja, however, wondered how and why the PDP was still in existence, despite its alleged failure as a government that was in power for sixteen years.
Also, speaking at the event, the APC vice-presidential candidate, Senator Kashim Shettima, boasted that if elected in 2023, their presidency would turn the country into an industrial nation in order to turn the tide of the current economic downturn.
But replying Tinubu, the PDP has told the APC presidential candidate to stop grandstanding and first address allegations bordering on his multiple name changes, alleged disparity in his age and educational qualifications.
In another development, the Imo State Governor and member of the APC, Senator Hope Uzodinma, has told the Igbo to forget the presidency in 2023, and that they could only produce a president of their extraction whenever they found peace with Nigeria.
Tinubu, who exuded so much confidence, described the PDP as a party that lacked direction, urged members of his party not to be bothered about the opposition. “We are not just the ones to hurl abuses and insults at our rivals’ party. We don’t need it. We are smarter; we are brilliant; we are courageous; we are not like them.
“They spent 16 years and forgot that there is a railway infrastructure that can do haulage, human carriage, animal husbandry and food carriage across the length and breadth of the country.
“They (PDP) got there and turned it to an incubator. I wonder why they still exist as a party. These are people still fighting for leadership of their party, looking for the direction of the compass. We are not equal at all; we are smarter. We know the road; let them follow.
“We don’t need to worry about PDP — poverty development party. Today, let’s lower the temperature. It’s not the time to campaign yet. They will hear a lot from us.
“We are the party of progressive ideas. We want good education for our children, good development for Nigeria, prosperity for this country, agricultural and agro-allied projects to be embarked upon,” he said.
Addressing the APC plans for Nigeria, Tinubu said the party, had the solution to the country’s problems, and that it was strategising to tackle the challenges.
According to him, “We have the confidence that, we have what it takes. We have the courage, determination, perseverance and foresight to identify the problems of Nigeria and tackle them headlong and make a solution out of them for the prosperity of your children. We will guarantee tomorrow, jobs for your grandchildren, and the progress of tomorrow.
“All we are doing is strategising, calculating and organising ourselves to confront the challenge before us.”
On his part, while noting that Tinubu’s presidency would turn Nigeria into an industrialised nation, Shettima said, “We are on the threshold of making history. The global economy is tilting towards recession because the world has moved from the agricultural age to the industrial age.
“We have moved from the industrial age to the knowledge-driven age. People are now talking of big data of artificial intelligence, nanotechnology and open biotechnology. Who among the presidential candidates we have here in this country has the skill set, the intellect, the capacity to move this nation greater than Asiwaju Bola Tinubu?”
PDP Challenges Tinubu to Speak Out on Name, Age, Education
But the opposition PDP, has challenged Tinubu, to address concerns about his real name, age and educational qualification, because it remained a moral burden on him, his party and aspiration.
PDP was reacting to a comment by Tinubu that the opposition party was dead.
According to the PDP, “From Bola Tinubu’s incoherent discourse, he appears to be battling with issues of ethical challenges and ineligibility to contest election on account of inconsistencies in his educational qualifications, name, ancestry, age, corruption allegations among myriads of issues.”
Spokesman of the party, Debo Ologunagba, further said, “Asiwaju is a huge baggage to the APC. He should know that because of him there is a daily exodus of millions of APC members across the country into the PDP.
“In the last one month, over 5 million APC members have defected to the PDP. In the Lagos State axis, his supposed stronghold, close to one million APC members have decamped to the PDP since his emergence as APC Presidential Candidate.
“It is distressing that Asiwaju Tinubu speaks like someone under the influence with incoherent discourse and absence of mind that further expose a lack of capacity for leadership especially at the Presidential level.”
The PDP said, Nigerians were appalled by yet another attempt by Tinubu, to divert attention from the main issues of the failures of the APC government by making derogatory remarks on the PDP.
The opposition party said such fixation on the PDP only exposed Tinubu as a paper candidate, who was confused, nervy and intimidated by the PDP’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, and the achievements of the PDP, which stared him in the face in mortal fear of failure ahead of the 2023 general election.
PDP said unlike the APC that was dead, the PDP was not only alive and existing as acknowledged by Tinubu in his statement, but also strong, united and focused on its mission to rescue, rebuild and redirect the nation from the misrule of the APC.
“It is rather shameful that the APC Presidential Candidate alluded to the nation’s railway system, which was revitalised by the PDP administration but painfully surrendered to terrorists and bandits by the APC government.
“Nigerians gave Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu the benefit of the doubt but he failed them by engineering a deceitful government leading to the ugly indices of insecurity and bloodletting, economic hardship, unemployment, disunity and low life expectancy imposed on our nation in the last seven years.
“He should know that Nigerians are aware that he is in the Presidential race not to serve but to gain control of the nation’s treasury so as to expand his exploitative enterprise and economic empire beyond Lagos State.
“The APC presidential Candidate has not responded to allegations that he is the promoter of the increase in VAT, electricity tariff, import duties, Stamp Duty, fuel price hike as well as other exploitative tolls by the APC federal government, from which he allegedly benefits through many stooges in the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and other revenue generating agencies of government.
“This is because Nigerians have recognised the PDP and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar as the solution our nation needs at this moment while Asiwaju has been identified as ‘Another Problem Coming (APC).”
Uzodinma: Igbo Should Forget 2023, Will Produce President When They Find Peace With Nigeria
Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodinma, has has advised the South East to forget the presidency in 2023, saying it would produce a president of Nigeria the day they find peace with the country or became the economic and technological giant of the country that would make it an irresistible option.
Speaking at a lecture in honour of an elder statesman, Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu’s80th birthday, in Owerri, the state capital, he said the Igbo must pursue the Israeli model, where they made themselves so attractive as global players in critical areas that their freedom became inescapable.
Dwelling more on the similarities between the two situations, Uzodinma argued that Ndigbo, just like technology in many areas including farming with modern implements as opposed to hoes and cutlasses, must not insist on the method battling their peculiar situation in the country by the same method their founding fathers adopted.
“Must we continue on that part that didn’t work 70 years ago? What of innovation? What of research? What about deploying the right thought process to think like in the 21st century challenges turnaround? What our forefathers did, they farmed with hoes and shovels, but today, mechanised agriculture is in vogue and today, we’re migrating from the analogue way of agriculture to the mechanised way.
“The Igbo may be likened to the Jews. The Jews had the experiences and challenges we’re having today. Israel did not get independence because they went to war. They did not get independence because of violence. They were given independence because of their technological feats of the Manhattan Project.
“They used the Manhattan Project to negotiate with the other parts of the world and the United Nations, led by America, granted them independence. It is not about having your country, but how do you manage your country. One per cent of something is better than 100 per cent of nothing,” he said.
Chuks Okocha in Abuja
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