President Muhammadu Buhari recently inaugurated the Nasarawa State Campaign Council for Governor Abdullahi Sule with a call on APC members to crush opposition in the state ahead of the 2023 general election, reports Igbawase Ukumba
President Muhammadu Buhari on November 5, 2022, launched the 385-member Nasarawa State Campaign Council for Governor Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State, ahead of the 2023 poll at the Public Square, Lafia.
Perhaps, with the unveiling and inauguration of the state APC Campaign Council by the president, the coast might have been cleared for Governor Sule to start the 2023 campaigns to not only crush the opposition, but to also return to Lafia Government House.
The mammoth crowd, who turned out for the well attended event, received a message from President Buhari that members of the state campaign council, as well as members and supporters of the APC, should work harder to deliver the party in order to sustain his (Buhari) legacies which he (Buhari) was going to leave behind after eight years on the saddle of governance.
Nevertheless, the president also called on electorate of the state to vote for the return of the state governor, Abdullahi Sule, for the continuity and consolidation of his achievements in his first term.
Buhari, who inaugurated the Nasarawa campaign council through his Chief of Staff, Prof Ibrahim Gambari, said his leadership of the APC was committed to a number of principles.
According to him, “my leadership is committed to the safety and security of this country. My leadership is committed to the revitalisation of agriculture and diversification of the economy of this country.”
Buhari said he was committed to leave the country much safer. He also said he was committed to leaving the country where probity and transperancy is the key. And therefore, these legacies he was going to leave: the legacy of infrastructure, the legacy of diversified economy, the legacy of a safer country, hence he wanted the best to consolidate on those of his legacies.
“What I want first of all is that my party should be returned. I want all the governors of APC to be returned. I want most states to become APC states. And, therefore, in that context, what do I want? Continuity and consolidation of our achievements in Nasarawa State,” Buhari maintained.
With the unveiling and inauguration of the Nasarawa State Campaign Council, the APC in the state was ready to start campaigns to surpass the victory recorded by the party in 2019, said Governor Sule. He boasted that the party’s 2019 victory will be a child’s play, because as a student of the Dangote, he will not take the opposition lightly, but will crush the opposition.
“The victory you saw in 2019 will be a child’s play. I am actually a student of the Dangote. And in Dangote we don’t take competition lightly. We crush competition. We make sure it does not exist. We don’t want to see one out of the 24 members of the house of assembly that is not an APC,” Sule vowed.
To match words with action by way of facilitating the APC 2023 campaigns, the governor distributed 30 Sharon vehicles, 300 motorcycles and 20 wheelchairs to party officials, groups and associations, as well as women, youths and persons living with disabilities.
This was even as he emphasized that the APC must deliver Nasarawa State because it produced the National Chairman of the party, Senator Abdullahi Adamu.
“We are determined. This is the state of our national chairman, therefore this is the state that APC must win. This is the state of Senator Tanko Al-Makura. Therefore, this is the state that A. A. Sule must win. This is the state of A. A Sule. Therefore, this is a state that all our Senators must win. By the grace of God we are going to come out victorious,” he prayed.
He however pointed out that the APC will go out to campaign as if the party was the underdog until the party was returned to power to continue with the good work that his administration was doing in the state.
“We are going to go ahead with this campaign as if we are the underdogs, we are not going to have any overconfidence the way other people are having. We are going to put in all our energy into this campaign until we deliver. Because we want to deliver. We want to come back. We want to continue with the good work that we are doing,” the governor insisted.
For the National Chairman of the APC, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, it was time for the Nasarawa State electorate to deliver the party at all the levels of the general election, from the president to members of the National and State Assemblies.
Senator Adamu concluded that the only way Nigerians would show appreciation to President Buhari, who is completing his second term in office, was to vote overwhelmingly for the APC so that the party will produce his successor.
On his part, Senator Umaru Tanko Al-Makura assured that the APC has a lot to sell to the people of Nasarawa State, hence urging every citizen of the state to be proud of the party.
According to the immediate past governor of the state: “The APC should also be proud of Nasarawa State because it was the goose that laid the golden egg back in 2011.”
Al-Makura was, therefore, optimistic that with the array of individuals at the event, the people of the state were ready to repeat the feat achieved in 2019 which saw Engineer Sule defeated two political juggernauts of the state.
“I believe by seeing the congregation here, the faces that are here, that we are definitely going to repeat that feat and make it even better. My people of Nasarawa State, you have not disappointed us. You have made Nasarawa to be mainly, solidly and thoroughly an APC state. I am calling on you to repeat the feat and even improve on it because APC has done so much for Nasarawa State,” Al-Makura said.
He, however, called on the people to commence campaigns immediately and not to isolate it to rallies, lectures or town hall meetings, but to sell the party at every given opportunity. While highliting what the APC has done for Nasarawa State, the senator representing Nasarawa South Senatorial District in the National Assembly said the people of the state will ask for more because they will do more to ensure that APC was elected from top to bottom.
On his parts part, Speaker of the Nasarawa State House of Assembly, Hon Ibrahim Balarabe Abdullahi, said people of the State will re-elect the incumbent in 2023, considering his developmental strides in almost all sectors of the state economy. Hence Abdullahi was optimistic that the Nasarawa people will return Sule to consolidate on his achievements.
The Speaker also promised President Buhari and the APC family that the people of the state will give the party 85 percent of total votes cast in the 2023 general election in the state.
“Let me give a message to our President Muhammadu Buhari through his Chief of Staff that the people of Nasarawa State are promising him 85 percent of total votes cast in the state in 2023. Governor Sule has no opposition, therefore, people of the state will return him come.”
According to the assembly speaker, “as far as we are concerned, we have no opposition in Nasarawa State. We just allow them to talk, but the majority will have their way. Today, the people of Nasarawa State have gathered here for nothing, but to pass a vote of confidence on His Excellency Abdullahi Sule. The people of Nasarawa State have spoken with one voice to ensure the re-election of Engr. Abdullahi Sule.
He justified the vote of confidence passed on Governor Sule by people of the state on the basis of his excellent performances in the areas of infrastructure, education, health, security, agriculture, among others. He consequently insisted that that was why the president awarded Sule as the best governor among the 36 state governors of the federation in the area of agriculture.
Welcoming guests earlier then to the event, state chairman of the APC, Dr John Mamman, also declared a vote of confidence on Governor Sule. Mamman said officials of the APC party in the state were very proud of the positive impacts that the governor has made on majority of the people in the state. Reiterating that the state party officials have no option than to continue passing vote of confidence on the governor in order to carry on with his steadfast developmental strides in all ramifications for the betterment of people of the state.
“This is due to the prudent and efficient management of resources in the past three years that he has been in office as Executive Governor. It will, no doubt, interest the public to know that the Debt Management Office has classified Nasarawa State as one of the six states in the country with the best sense of debts management”.
