In an apparent last-minute strategic move, presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Ahmed Tinubu, yesterday in Abuja met with governorship and National Assembly candidates of the party ahead of the upcoming general election.
Tinubu told the candidates that he had been eager to meet with them, just as he urged them to ensure they do not disappoint members of the party who elected them to fly the party’s flag at the polls.
According to him, with the many unproductive years of the former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government, Nigerians and indeed members of the APC are expecting a new lease of life from the candidates.
“I am pleased to meet with you today because in you I see our party’s hope and path to success. In you I see the hope of historic national progress as well.
“As so often in life, victory is not a cause for rest or celebration. It is a call to a greater challenge and harder toil. Thus, you all have won the primaries but now must climb the higher mountain called the general elections,” he said.
Speaking further, he said: “We formed the APC, not just to be another political party. We formed it as a champion of the people to rescue democracy from the ravages of the PDP who boasted of ruling the nation for 60 years.
“We formed this party to rescue the people and their collective prosperity from the avarice and greed of an elite that will devour the nation’s God-given endowment if we allow such people back into power. As those flying our party’s flag, we carry a heavy burden on our shoulders.
“We have the mandate to deliver the party to victory so that we may protect Nigeria from those who would devour all of its fruits.
“The party has placed its trust in us. Democratic victory in the coming elections is a task we must accomplish.”
The presidential front runner urged the party’s candidates to go to the polls starting from the presidential and National Assembly elections on February 25 to the governorship and state assembly elections on March 11 with a united front.
He said they must collectively work for the party’s victory in all elections to ensure that the party’s project of growth and development for the nation is assured.
On his part, he promised to continue to work for every one of them even as he also desires to become Nigeria’s president.
“But winning takes us working as a united force. We have to act like the broom, the symbol of our party. A stick cannot clean any dirt but coming together under the band as one, we can sweep aside all the bad and wrong things that impede our nation’s growth and development.
“As individuals we must strive to win our respective elections. But that is not enough. We have to work together to deliver everyone contesting in our party.’’
The presidential election, for example, is not solely about Bola Ahmed Tinubu. It is your project as well. Your election is equally my project.
“We need each other. Whatever position you are contesting, you need me as much as I need you. If I work for you, I am helping myself; if you mobilize for me, you are working for yourself at the same time. Our individual and collective fates are one.
“Let us win and rise together. This is as it should be.
“I therefore rededicate myself to the victory of you all just as I do for myself. As you can see, they call me weak but I am canvassing back and forth and, in every corner, and space of the nation. My opponents are not. I am outworking them because this election is a great mission for me, much more than my personal ambition.
“I too ask you all to re-dedicate yourself to the cause of the party and the future of the nation. I cannot be everywhere, no one can.
“Our strength lies in our number and our spread. Having you across the length of this country makes me comfortable. I am working round the clock for our collective victory. We all should not rest until the entire election is over and victory is ours,” he added.
The meeting, which attracted a large number of the candidates, was attended by the party’s national chairman, Abdullahi Adamu, Senate President Ahmed Lawan, House of Representatives Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila, many governors of the party as well as members of the National Working Committee and Presidential Campaign Council.
