National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has vowed to teach the presidential candidate of the opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar a lesson at the polls taking place on Saturday. He also told the International Observers monitoring the forthcoming general elections to observe the elections and go home, saying Nigerians would not entertain unlawful interference by foreign organisations or countries.
Speaking yesterday at the APC presidential rally held at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Surulere in Lagos, Tinubu also took a swipe at former President Olusegun Obasanjo over his criticism of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led APC administration, describing the former president as the nation’s biggest election rigger. His words: “I want to sympathise with our friends, our foreign observers. You are truly welcome. Observe what you need to observe, write your report in peace and go home.
This is our democracy. America is still questioning its own
democracy. We are watching CNN, Trump and Russia, China. Interference in the
largest Africa democracy is what we are saying. “The G20 in 2007 asked
President Umar Yar’Adua, what are you going to do with the election in Nigeria?
National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC),
Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has vowed to teach the presidential candidate of the
opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar a
lesson at the polls taking place on Saturday. He also told the International
Observers monitoring the forthcoming general elections to observe the elections
and go home, saying Nigerians would not entertain unlawful interference by
foreign organisations or countries.
Speaking yesterday at the APC presidential rally held at the
Teslim Balogun Stadium, Surulere in Lagos, Tinubu also took a swipe at former
President Olusegun Obasanjo over his criticism of the President Muhammadu
Buhari-led APC administration, describing the former president as the nation’s
biggest election rigger. His words: “I want to sympathise with our friends, our
foreign observers. You are truly welcome. Observe what you need to observe,
write your report in peace and go home.
This is our democracy. America is still questioning its own
democracy. We are watching CNN, Trump and Russia, China. Interference in the
largest Africa democracy is what we are saying. “The G20 in 2007 asked
President Umar Yar’Adua, what are you going to do with the election in Nigeria?
He said, ‘The
election that brought me in as the president is flawed and I will reform it’.
Who conducted the election? Obasanjo, the greatest election rigger in this
country. He is an expired meat. Put him in the shop or dump him in the dustbin,
forget Obasanjo!” Tinubu said the APC presidential rally in Lagos was a
celebration of democracy and not about the campaign of Buhari, declaring that:
“Lagos is sure, very sure for the APC. This is a broom revolution. You’ve heard
our state chairman who had catalogued when Buhari came here to campaign four
years ago, he did not make fluke promises. We saw the action.”
In his address, President Buhari, who called on Lagosians to
vote for him and other APC candidates from “the bottom to the top” assured
Nigerians that all those who had stolen Nigeria’s money would not go scot-free.
He vowed to recover more of the nation’s stolen money from looters and send
them to prison, if re-elected on Saturday. “I assure you that the promise we
have made in 2015 based on which you elected us; we make tremendous progress as
mentioned by those who told you what this administration is doing on security,
economy and fighting corruption. I assure you we will maintain our focus.
“I assure you, whoever is trusted with government
responsibility must account for it. If that is not done, we will eventually get
hold of them, take away what they have stolen and get them in prison. This is
our duty. This is our responsibility and I assure you, we will continue to do
it. I thank you very much and I look forward to massive support.” President
Buhari, while speaking earlier at a session with members of the Organised
Private Sector held at Lagos House, Marina, said it was gratifying to note that
the economic policies of his administration were already making the desired
impact as evidenced by steady growth in the economy in the last three years.
According to him, the APC government had kept its promise to
boost the economy through blocking of leakages in government finances,
increasing capital expenditure and inflows, and implementing the Economic
Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP), among others. “I firmly believe that our
economic policies are beginning to make the desired impact. Economic growth has
resumed and is continuing to improve. Growth was higher in 2017 than in 2016,
data even from external sources show that it was also higher in 2018 than in
2017. I am confident that as we stay the course, it will be better still at the
end of 2019.
“Inflation is coming
down steadily, there is stability in the exchange rate and foreign exchange is
readily available for genuine business. Foreign reserves are adequate and
growing; capital inflows have increased and the trade balance is positive. “We
are paying off debts that were not even publicly acknowledged before now,
including those owed to States, the electricity sector, oil marketers,
exporters, backlog of salaries of workers and pensioners, amongst others,’’ he
said. Also speaking at the APC presidential rally in Surulere, Vice President
Yemi Osinbajo said: “We are going to do three things immediately after we get
to the Next Level that we are talking about. First is a jobs opportunity for
the youths. Second is power.
Third is provision of infrastructure; roads and railways.
“If we vote for Buhari, we will get a lot of roads and achieve those things.
What affected us in the past was corruption. There was too much stealing. The
reason why they don’t want Buhari to
return is because they want to steal from the treasury. We will not allow that.
Buhari will not allow them to steal from the treasury.
Buhari is not corrupt and his enemy knows that he is not a
corrupt man and not someone who can steal from the treasury. “We talked about
June 12 for several years but past government failed to recognise the day.
Obasanjo and Atiku refused to make June 12 a public holiday. But now, Buhari
has made June 12 a public holiday and Democracy Day.
How many of us want such good things to continue? We will
continue to see such good things if President Buhari is re-elected. On February
16, we must vote with our index fingers.” In his address, the National Chairman,
Comrade Adams Oshiomhole said the February 16 presidential poll is fight
between the rich and the poor. He said Buhari was the only Nigerian President
that the British Prime Minister could not call a thief and a president that US
President, Donald Trump could admit was fighting corruption. Oshiomole also
criticised the PDP presidential candidate, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar
for saying that when he becomes president, he would enrich his friends at the
expense of the poor.
His words: “You can’t allow the other party that misrule for
16 years. They only delivered poverty, corruption and mismanagement and gave us
collective bad name; why will you bring them back. We have a president that
says Nigeria must work for Nigerians. PDP says Nigeria should only work for the
rich. When Buhari said, however, poor we are, we must dedicate N500billion to
the issues of the poor, the PDP says this is money wasted.
“Atiku said he would enrich his friend when he becomes
president. If you make mistake to vote him in, he will enrich his friends. Are
you Atiku’s friend? What stops him from saying, if I’m elected, I will empower
the masses? So for once, Atiku spoke the truth. He has a history of helping and
enriching his friends and also himself. “What makes us different is clear.
Buhari says he will fight corruption and he is doing that.
Atiku says he will grant amnesty to rich people who have stolen. Did he say he
would grant amnesty to poor armed robbers? So it is a class issue between the
rich and the poor; between them and us.”
Also speaking, Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode,
said Lagos had been sold and delivered to the APC already, saying that the
achievements his administration recorded would not have been possible without
the support of Buhari. According to him, this election was not about religion,
but about infrastructure, as had been
replicated in Lagos with the support of Buhari. “In the first two years, we
were in economic recession caused by the PDP, but we have stabilised, PDP said
they will make Nigeria work again, yet they destroyed Nigeria. We should vote
for APC for continuity and for more jobs,” he said.
The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde
Fashola, said President Buhari get the job done and he doesn’t have time to
write letters. “I have delivered your message and the message of your
government and our party to them – that ‘Next Level’ means jobs, from Mambilla,
to the road projects, to the factories, roads from Apapa all the way to Oworonshoki.
I have told them that you don’t have time to write letters; you get the job
done.”
He also urged the
people to get their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) ready and vote en-masse for
APC, saying that re-electing APC would bring more prosperity and development,
among other dividends of democracy. Lagos APC governorship candidate, Mr.
Babajide Sanwo- Olu, also implored Lagosians to vote massively for President
Buhari in Saturday election as well as all the party’s candidates in the
February 16 and March 2 elections. Meanwhile the Oba of Lagos, Oba Riliwanu
Akiolu, yesterday described President Buhari as a man of his words and that he
will be victorious in the forthcoming presidential poll.
Speaking when
President Buhari and his campaign team visited his palace in Lagos Island
yesterday, Oba Akiolu assured the president that there would be a repeat of his
2015 electoral victory in the coming election. The monarch, who decried the rot
that past administrations left behind in the country, thanked the President for
his achievements since assuming office and urged Nigerians to continue to
support him. He said that had a catalogue of requests, including mass transit
and pressing issues on the Apapa ports, and they had all been committed into
writing. Akiolu presented Buhari with a Quran as he prayed for him. In his
response, Buhari commended Akiolu appreciating the efforts of his government.
“I
appreciate all you have said and I assure you that I will continue to do my
best. The promise we made through our party in 2015, our country needs to be
secured and properly managed. “If there is no security, we cannot do anything
no matter your resources. We thank God our efforts have brought some fruits
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