Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) counterpart, Atiku Abubakar, yesterday stretched themselves to breaking point in their ongoing eligibility battle ahead of the 2023 presidential poll.
In the contest for the 2023 presidency, the duo had been descending on each other verbally since the campaigns started, with the latest degenerating into a verbal war with incisive vituperations.
Tinubu cast the first stone on Saturday when, in a veiled reference to Atiku, he said Delta State where the PDP vice presidential candidate, Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, hails from was not an ATM for migratory politicians.
Speaking during a rally at the Warri Township Stadium, the APC candidate lambasted the PDP for failing to develop Delta State despite the huge resources accruing to the state.
But firing back at Tinubu in a swift reaction, Atiku said Nigerians have “rejected drug barons and consumers of illicit drugs” ahead of the 2023 polls, even as he described the Warri rally as a charade and assembly of gangsters.
Addressing the rally earlier yesterday, Tinubu accused the opposition party of abandoning infrastructural development in the state and leaving the state to rot away.
He said, “Delta is among Nigeria’s largest oil and gas producing states. Revenue from oil and gas has historically been the backbone of government revenue and foreign exchange earnings.
“As such your state and other oil producers have made a one-of-a-kind financial contribution to the building of modern Nigeria. The nation is thankful to you.
“Delta has all it takes to be great and help lead the nation forward. Yet, for the past twenty-three years, those governing your state have taken you for a hard and long ride by selling you short. They have not done the things they should have and could have done for you.
“The infrastructure in the state was better 30 years ago than it is now. The state has recorded historic debts run up by the incumbent yet the infrastructure and other things still remain lacking because of under investment and neglect.
“The money is much but it does not have legs. Where did it go? Not to your welfare. Perhaps, it has found a home with a certain presidential candidate who loves Dubai more than Nigeria.
“But Delta State is not an ATM for migratory politicians. It is a place where good and hardworking people reside and work to create decent and peaceful lives for themselves and their families.”
On his plans for Delta State, which he described as another home to him, Tinubu promised to re-activate the gas revolution industrial park while also seeing to the cleaning of the whole Niger-Delta region to ensure that the host communities do not suffer for building the nation’s economy through their oil.
He continued: “Our government will further re-activate the Multi-Billion Dollar Gas Revolution Industrial Park Project. President Buhari’s administration has made great strides in revisiting this project. We will complete it.
“Gas will become a national priority. I envision fertilizer and petrochemical plants, aluminium smelters, methanol plants, all creating jobs for the unemployed while producing goods that bolster farming, construction and other industries.
“We will step up and clean up the operations of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and the Ministry of the Niger Delta.
“The NDDC will be improved. Greater cooperation with Communities which have suffered the environmental degradation will be my policy.
“I am saddened by the environmental cost which the oil and gas industry has exacted. Our moral and economic duty calls us to clean the Niger Delta and to create new opportunities for young Deltans to build better lives for themselves,” he added.
On infrastructure development in the state, which he affirmed had been in a sorry state, Tinubu said, “We will help develop the infrastructure of your state. The deep sea port project and the Omadino – Escravos Road project will be revisited. We will rehabilitate Warri, Koko, Sapele and Burutu ports, creating yet more jobs in the State.”
He also promised to make the state safe for all, noting that no business can thrive in an unsafe environment.
“My government will deploy new technologies to protect the safety and security of law- abiding Deltans as well as the critical national infrastructure situated in this state. We will also introduce greater funding and reform policies to bring the Nigerian police closer to the communities they serve,” he added.
Also addressing the rally, APC governorship candidate in the state, Senator Omo-Agege, said the governor of Delta State and vice presidential candidate of the opposition PDP, Okowa, had failed the state and should step down.
He said Delta under Okowa’s watch had become poverty and slum capital of the country and urged the people of the state to vote for Tinubu and all APC candidates in the 2023 general elections.
Okowa also came under criticism from former governor of Edo State, Comrade Oshiomhole, who accused him of under-developing the state.
Speaking in pidgin English, he said he was backing Asíwájú Tinubu for the presidency because “anyone wey want higher responsibility, you look hin past record service” stating that Tinubu as governor of Lagos State turned the state around and made it one of the biggest economies in Africa.
Senate President Lawan paid glowing tributes to both Tinubu Senator Omo-Agege, his deputy, who he described as an eminent son of Delta State.
Tinubu’s wife, Senator Oluremi, who is a daughter of the soil, also addressed the people in her Itsekiri language, urging them to vote for APC so they could have one of their own in the corridor of power.
But in a swift response, Atiku said Nigerians have rejected drug barons and users of illicit drugs, stressing that Delta State remains a PDP controlled state.
Speaking through the spokesperson of the PDP presidential campaign management committee, Senator Dino Melaye, Atiku also described the Warri rally as a charade and assembly of gangsters.
Speaking with LEADERSHIP Sunday, Melaye said, “Only Tinubu, Shettima and Oshomole will celebrate a mace thief – one who desecrated the National Assembly, brought hoodlums and bandits into the sacred chamber of the Senate. Nigerians have rejected Drug barons and consumers of illicit drugs.
“The Warri rally is a charade and assembly of gangsters. Delta is PDP and PDP is Delta. My advice to Omo Agege is to wait for his time in prison.”
Melaye Lampoons Tinubu Over Jos Rally
Similarly, the Atiku/Okowa presidential campaign organisation yesterday assured the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) not to bother itself with any preparation for a run off in the 2023 Presidential election as the Presidential Candidate of the People Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, will win at the first ballot.
The campaign urged INEC not to listen to diversionary narratives by apologists of the deflated All Progressives Congress (APC) who are ostensibly seeking ways to derail the election, having realized that their Party has been rejected.
The campaign further said INEC should deploy its resources towards conducting a free, fair, transparent and credible election that will be generally accepted by majority of Nigerians.
Spokesperson of the Atiku/Okowa Campaign Organization, Kola Ologbondiyan, in a statement, said, “Our campaign is confident that by every indices and data available, our Candidate, Atiku Abubakar, will win the Presidential election of February 25, 2023 at the first run.
“The APC has seen defeat ahead as Nigerians are quickly reaching a consensus on the fact that the APC Presidential Candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is not electable.
“We urge Nigerians to remain resolute in their determination to vote in their choice, Atiku Abubakar, and take every step necessary within the ambit of the law to protect their votes”.
I’m Still The Atiku You Know, Atiku Tells Tiv People
Meanwhile, presidential candidate of the DP, Atiku, has assured the Tiv people of Benue State that he would continue to stand with them as he had always done if elected president in 2023.
Atiku, who spoke at the 82nd Synod of the Universal Reformed Christian Church (URCC) NKST at Mkar, Benue State yesterday, promised to stand with the people and wipe their tears just like he did during the pogrom at Zaki-Biam, Gbeji and Adoor during his time as vice president.
The PDP flag bearer was represented at the event by Prof Iyorwuese Hagher, a former Nigerian envoy to Canada and Panama.
He assured the people that if elected, no Nigerian citizen would stay in bed unable to sleep because of foreign and domestic terrorists.
“I am standing before you today to seek the co-operation of the church and by extension all faith-based organisations in Nigeria to join hands with us the PDP as we roll back the terrible scourge of the last seven years of a failed economy, unemployment, corruption, failed infrastructure, failed education, failed health care as well as environmental challenges like global warming and flooding that is destroying lives and properties.
“Only you, our spiritual fathers, can rally together our hapless citizens who are losing hope to know that they are more powerful than they think they are, and to unite with a common purpose to rescue Nigeria.
“Let those who have no hope because of politician’s failed promises, know the power of their PVC as the power to hire and fire elected politicians. I stand here with you to say that our democracy is failing because when people yield to temptation and become indifferent to elections they are in fact killing our country Nigeria.
“I stand before you in my incurable belief in the one united indivisible but diverse Nigeria. This is not the time to be hopeless. This is the call of a wounded nation that must be taken by you today from the Mkar Mountain in North Central, to the creeks of South South in Rumaokoro in Rivers, to Badagri, in the South West, Chadawa in the North West, Oji River in South East, and Chibok in the North East,” he said.
He also pleaded with them not to vote him as a Fulani man but the Atiku they knew, adding; “I took a contrary position from our government against the pogrom at Zaki-Biam and Gbeji and Adoor. I stood with my Tiv brothers and sisters. We walked the streets of Zaki-Biam the day it happened, condemning the anti-Tiv violence and was vindicated years later when the army apologised.
“I wish to conclude this address by pleading with my friends who in these moments of despair and darkness have seen me as a Fulani man rather than the Atiku Abubakar they knew. I remember how we stood together when I was vice president.
“I am still the same person the Zege Mule u Tiv, I can assure you that when you elect me President, no Nigerian citizen will stay in bed unable to sleep because of foreign and domestic terrorists. My government will be a government of law and order and as a pan-Nigerian president, no ethnic group will feel excluded, marginalized and threatened. I am the same Atiku of yesterday. I will stand by you as your president, Atiku Abubakar, the Zege Mule u Tiv.”
