The Northern Christian Youth Professionals (NCYP) have declared that the will support the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his running mate, Kashim Shettima despite the Muslim/ Muslim ticket.
Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, the convener of the group, Isaac Abrak, said both Tinubu and Kashim Shettima have raised alot of youths adding that they will support them in the 2023 general elections.
“We are aware that you are searching for a voice to ask the NCYP leadership that “Now that Bola Ahmed Tinubu has chosen a Muslim/Muslim Ticket, where do we stand? Are we moving to support another party? Are we still Team Tinubu?
“Today we are here to inform you that we are choosing to still pitch our tent with Bola Ahmed Tinubu / Kashim Shetima because this ticket can fix the problems of insecurity that are disturbing our well-being.
“For us as youths, both Tinubu and Kashim have used mass employment of youths to reduce insecurity and improve the economic living conditions of their people.
“In Lagos, Tinubu’s mass employment of youths known as agberos into Lagos State Traffic Management Agency, Lagos Waste Management Authority to mention a few, reduced crime rate and brought a peaceful and business striving environment that has eluded the state for a long time. This is part of the secret behind the astronomical growth of the famous Lagos state Internally Generated Revenue, ” the group said.
“Kashim in 2012 secured Maiduguri the state capital and by extension Borno state as whole from being captured by Boko Haram. When he audaciously employed twenty thousand youths into the then newly created Civilian Joint Task Force, this played the key role that chased Boko Haram out of the capital to the fringes of the state. Some security experts believe that if not for the contribution of these youths in the CTJF, Borno state would have fallen to Boko Haram and they would easily have swallowed the whole northeastern region, which would have been bad for Nigeria and the ECOWAS community.
“We have no doubt that with Tinubu and Kashim there is going to be mass youth employment not only in the north but across the states of Nigeria as a whole. We are already talking about the reopening of the Textile factories in my home state of Kaduna for instance. About 700,000 people, mostly youths will be employed when the factories reopen. There are similar factories in Kano and many states of the north that will be reopened. This will be the first step of naturally weakening all forms of insecurity, particularly Boko Haram and Bandits.
“Tinubu’s tolerance to christians is exemplary; his wife is an anointed Pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God; he is the first Governor to take back the missionary schools that were taken by fiat by the military regimes. Timubu handed the schools back to the church to promote competition in Lagos state educational sector in pursuit of excellence. This audacious policy is paying off, ” the group added.
