The All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential campaign council said yesterday that it has mobilised over five million farmers for the party’s presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Secretary of Agro Commodities Directorate of the campaign council, Retson Tedheke, said the campaign team is targeting 12.5 million before the February 25 presidential election in Nigeria.
Tedheke spoke at a summit organised by the campaign council to meet with national sarmers stakeholders to discuss the Tinubu manifesto as it relates to agriculture.
He noted that they convened the farmers’ summit to discuss the benefits of the manifesto which would in turn mobilise votes for the APC Presidential Candidate.
He stated: “The summit is pulling together all farm leaders across the country, come here let us have the conversation, let us look at the Asiwaju’s manifesto, look at the farmer’s challenge, look at Asiwaju’s contract with the farmers and then look at his promises. With that focus, we can drive Mobilisation across the country.
“As we speak over 5 million farming members across the country are committed to the course.we want to be able to take that number to about 12.5 million.”
Tedheke listed three key areas of the Tinubu Manifesto which he said address some challenges farmers face in Nigeria.
He said, “Three Key outlines on his agricultural manifesto. Number one is Rural infrastructure. Rural Nigeria needs basic infrastructure to be able to move goods to the market, have access to what they need to survive. So solving the problem of Rural infrastructure solves the problem of Nigerian farmers.
“Also access to cheap funding and long-term funding. The Anchor Borrowers Programme is a fantastic programe bur Agriculture must be treated as a National Security issue not a commercial venture. If you give farmers cheap money and its for the long term, farmers will be able to utilise it for the greater good. So the manifesto speaks to what the farmers challenges are.
“Now the herders/farmers clash is talking to the issue of insecurity, if you solve insecurity you solve that problem.”
Tedheke implored Nigerians to consider Tinubu’s performance on infrastructural development in Lagos State when he was a governor as well as the development of Agriculture in Borno State by his running mate, Kashim Shettima, when he was governor of the state.
Also speaking, the director of the APC presidential campaign council Agro Commodities Directorate, Abubakar Udulu Bello, said they intend to build on the 5million figures by convincing all their supporters in Nigeria of Tinubu’s leadership qualities.
“We are reaching out to all our farmers and all our support structures across the country. We know that he is the man, we know that he has the vision, the capacity and capability and he is the only one that will ensure that the successes that have been built is going to be sustained,” he pointed out.
