Tinubu Meets APC Guber, N’Assembly Candidates, Maps out Winning Strategies

*Says he’s campaigning more than those that call him weak

Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja

The presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Bola Tinubu, yesterday met with governorship and National Assembly candidates of the party ahead of the forthcoming general election.

The meeting held at the campaign headquarters of the party in Abuja started at about 2p.m and ended at 5:50p.m.
The meeting had in attendance the party’s National Chairman, Senator  Abdullahi Adamu, Senate President Ahmed Lawan, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila,  governors of the party, as well as members of the National  Working Committee (NWC) and Presidential Campaign Council (PCC).

Tinubu said he had been eager to meet with the party’s candidates and urged them to ensure they do not disappoint members of the party who elected them to fly the party’s tickets at the polls.
The APC presidential candidate challenged 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.

The former Governor of Lagos State said APC was formed not just to be another political party, but as a champion of the people to rescue democracy from the ravages of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which boasted of ruling the nation for 60 years.
He stated: “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.

“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.”

Tinubu noted that they have the mandate to deliver the party to victory so that they can protect Nigeria from those who would devour all of its fruits.  
According to him, the party has placed its trust in us. Democratic victory in the coming elections is a task we must accomplish. Every one 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.

The presidential candidate promised to continue to work for every one of them even as he also desires to become Nigeria’s president.
He added: “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 spread 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.
Speaking with journalists after the meeting, former Governor of Nasarawa State, Senator Tanko Al-Makura said the meeting was called by the party leaders to get everyone prepared for the elections.

He said: “This is a meeting  that  the leaders have called to get us really prepared, to get us properly inclined for what we are supposed to expect and what we’re supposed to do. The election is about 40 days or so. And everyone has to be sensitised, everyone has to be in the right frame of mind to pursue the project in line with what is enshrined in the Constitution and Electoral Act.

“And from what you can see, there is a tremendous amount of motivation, there is so much synergy in the ways a manner we are talking towards this election. I can see from the result of this meeting, that this election will be a huge success for APC at all levels, because we’re all on the same page.”
Also, the Secretary of the PCC, Hon. James Faleke, said the meeting was  a relationship meeting between Tinubu  and the PCC,  to know what was happening in their various states.

He added: “The biggest takeaway is the determination of everybody to work for the success of the party. From our interactions with the candidates, I can assure Nigerians that we are winning this election. As for the challenges they relayed to us that they are facing, it is an internal issue we will handle them internally.”
Asked about what the alert was about some cases in court and those that have been able to secure court judgments, Faleke noted that they are only dealing with the list released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)

He stated: “We have some candidates challenged by other aspirants, while others have court judgment. But as far as INEC list is concerned, we are going to deal with the list. We are not dealing with party’s list this time around. We already have the INEC list in our custody. We have cases of somebody winning at the Court of Appeal but the loser who appealed to Supreme Court wants us to stay action because of the appeal. But, we have told them that the law does not operate that way. We have made it clear to them that the law says that the man with substantive judgment is allowed.”

On the relationship between Tinubu and the governors, he described it as fantastic, stressing that there was no crack in the party compared to PDP.
According to him, he has fantastic relationships with the governors. Nobody should listen to those lies. If they are bold enough, let them say it. They are the ones that have problems like the G-5, G-2, G-1.