Former Borno State governor and Senator representing Borno Central Senatorial district, Kashim Shettima, has chided those raising concern over the health of a former Lagos governor and presidential aspirant under the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Bola Tinubu.
Addressing a gathering of those galvanising support for Tinubu’s presidency under the aegis of Tinubu Support Groups Management Council (SGMC), Shettima said the race for the presidency is about contestation of ideas on how to revamp the economy to stimulate growth and not an Olympic race.
He chided those who present the presidency as a brick-laying exercise, rather, he said the task demands people who can galvanise the best ideas to redeem the country.
Senator Shettima, who said Tinubu deserved the right of first refusal for his diligence in birthing the APC and securing the 2015 presidential ticket for President Muhammadu Buhari, urged the president to reward the loyalty of the former Lagos governor.
He said: “In 2015, some aspirants with very huge war chest were itching to clinch the ticket of the APC. Like the Rock of Gibraltar, Asiwaju and his progressive team stood solidly behind the candidature of President Muhamadu Buhari.
“We shall have minimal thresholds below which we won’t operate and the irreducible minimum is that after eight years of Presidency in the North, the logic, common sense, equity, justice and fairness demand that power should move to the Southern part of the country and who is better qualified? Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu should be given the choice of first refusal. More than any other person, he has sacrificed more for this democracy, for the APC.
“I’m not asking you to tone down critical assessments of your future leaders, but redirect you to see the bigger picture. We are not here to prepare for the Olympics, but an institution that relies on the superiority of ideas to thrive. Asiwaju’s credentials aren’t only appealing; they are proof of the qualities this country needs to redeem its vast potentials and possibilities.
“We are here to testify to this power of ideas, one that overturned the fortunes of Lagos State and sustained its supremacy as the largest economy in subSaharan Africa and kept the opposition alive when it was more profitable to sell out.
“Those who seek to make us go low, hope to present the presidency as a brick-laying exercise. But that’s the work of a machine created by an idea, and who else to guide us towards manufacturing the best ideas to redeem this country?
“The conversations we are prepared for aren’t pedestrian obsessions with the mundane, but comparisons of ideas and track records of service to the nation.
“At the top of our expectations from Nigeria’s next president should be mastery of the dynamics of the modern economy, testified leadership skills and competence, and, very significantly, sensitivity to the complexities of Nigerian sociology.”
Also addressing the over 2,500 Tinubu Support Groups, a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, accused the interim national leadership of the ruling party led by Yobe State governor, Mai Mala Buni, of not addressing the growing internal crises in state chapters. Lawal also canvassed for the adoption of direct primary for the presidential convention as against the indirect mode.
“We are neither offended nor threatened by whichever method the party chooses to adopt for the emergence of its presidential candidate. But of course, being democrats, we prefer a method that involves all the card-carrying members of the party in this choosing process.
“The incapacity of the party to even harmonize and synergize policy direction of the federal government with that of States it controls especially in key critical areas around which the campaigns were run, speaks volumes about its incompetence.
“Compounding these problems in the last one year is the apparent hijacking of the party by a self-serving cabal who, driven by personal ambitions, have failed to organise even simple conflict-free ward, local government, and state congresses not to talk of a national convention. As we speak, there are only a handful of states in the country that do not have parallel state executives.
“This is the current state of our party and it is in this environment that we gathered here must operate to deliver Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the party’s standard-bearer at the 2023 presidential election. And this we will do, be it through consensus, indirect or direct party primaries, by the grace of God.”
In his own presentation, Director General of the SGMC, Honourable Abdulmumin Jibrin, urged members of the groups not to relent in mobilising for their favoured candidate and be prepared for whatever option to be adopted by the APC in picking its standard-bearer. Jibrin, however, maintained that Asiwaju Tinubu remained the candidate to beat.
“We can’t take chances. We wanted the best hand. Yes, within the APC we have said repeatedly, we have very good hands. We have very good and competent and qualified people that can be president but we have someone that has an edge and beyond having an edge, we want someone that combines the competence, the qualification and the capacity, to win the election and who has the whole of that all combined? Asiwaju.”