The APC candidate was responding to comments made by Babachir Lawal, a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), on the APC’s Muslim/Muslim presidential ticket.
In a recent interview, Lawal cast doubt on Asiwaju Tinubu’s ability to become president in 2023.
The former SGF has stated that the ex-governor of Lagos State cannot win the 2023 presidential election running on the same religion ticket.
He argued that by selecting a Muslim as his running mate, the APC presidential candidate showed contempt for Christians in northern Nigeria.
Asiwaju Tinubu, however, dismissed the ex-SGF’s claims as speculation.
Asiwaju Tinubu, through the APC Presidential Campaign Council’s Director of Media and Publicity Bayo Onanuga, predicted that with the party’s and Buhari’s backing, Tinubu would win the race for president.
“Mere conjectures, very laughable projections. Asiwaju has never been on the ballot and lost any election.
“With 22 states under APC control, with the incumbent president’s backing, Asiwaju is heading for a landslide victory.
“Let Babachir Lawal deal first with the division in his renegade group instead of pontificating on the election’s outcome.
“This man, who is amplifying our religious difference with his gang, is from Hong Local Government Area of Adamawa State. He could not make Buhari win the council in the 2019 election, even though we had a Christian with the Buhari ticket,” he said.
In addition, Works and Housing Minister Babatunde Fashola (SAN) has urged APC leaders and members to refrain from attacking the party’s opponents and instead concentrate on persuading voters to support the party’s candidates in next year’s general election.
Fashola made these remarks Wednesday in Abuja during the opening of the Tinubu/Shettima Grassroots Independent Campaign Council’s Contact and Mobilization Directorate (APC-GICC).
Mohammed Hassan Abdullahi, Minister of Environment and Assistant Director of the Directorate, spoke on behalf of the Minister, who is responsible for the Directorate.
“We should focus on the real, individual voters, especially at the grassroots, to know the legacies of Asiwaju Tinubu when he was the governor of Lagos and Shettima also when he was the governor of Borno State, despite numerous challenges they encountered.
“I call on members of this committee to work tirelessly at the grassroots and tell the electorate that Nigeria will continue to experience growth and development if they vote for Tinubu/Shettima and all APC candidates.”
Senator Barnabas Gemade, a former National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and now a chieftain of the APC has declared, “Every election is local and not for urban dwellers. I charge all members of this great party to work harder by campaigning for votes at the grassroots.”
To avert another unresolved election in 2019, the APC in Kano State is mobilising over a million young people throughout the state’s 44 LGAs.
Malam Muhammad Garba, the information commissioner and spokesperson for the Gawuna/Garo Campaign Council, made the announcement.
He emphasised that the APC’s goal was to have the 2023 governor’s race decided in the first round of voting.
The election in 2019 was declared inconclusive by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) due to what Garba called “electoral malfeasance” on the part of members of the then-leading opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), most of whom are now in the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP).
Especially in the metropolitan local government districts of the state, he claimed, “members of the opposition mobilised their youths in the early hours of the day, and they engaged in enormous vote-buying, over-voting, vote-stuffing, and even violence.”
“In many polling units, the ballot boxes were found filled with ballot papers, some forcefully snatched from INEC staff or received from officials sympathetic to the opposition.
“After counting, most boxes were found to have contained ballot papers higher than the number of registered voters in the units. That was why the INEC declared the election inconclusive.”
Moreover, Asiwaju Tinubu has pledged to maintain the current administration’s Social Investment Programme (SIP) and conditional cash transfer to better the social and economic life of the command men.
JIgawa State Governor and Tinubu/Shettima Campaign Council Northern Co-Chair Muhammad Badaru Abubakar made these remarks in Jahun at the All Progressives Congress (APC) campaign launching in the Jigawa Central zone and the presentation of the APC flag to the zone’s state and federal candidates.
He declared, “Asiwaju Tinubu will increase the number of beneficiaries and the amount being paid monthly to beneficiaries of National conditional cash transfer.”
With “more than 167,000 people already benefiting from the initiative in the state,” Badaru stated the scope of the program’s reach in the region.
The governor guaranteed people in his state that maintaining the APC administration would lead to more job opportunities, greater economic growth, and improved government.