ALL Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, continued his nationwide campaign rally in Kano on Wednesday, urging the people of the state to vote him in next month’s presidential election.
Tinubu, who had been in Kano since midnight of Monday, where he met with Muslim leaders from the North-West in a town hall meeting on Tuesday, said he has what it takes to continue the developmental strides started by President Muhammadu Buhari after the 16 inglorious years of the Peoples Democratic Party in power.
A mammoth crowd of supporters had thronged the Sani Abacha Stadium, Kano venue of the rally.
The stadium was filled to the brim, yet more people were outside than inside.
It took the APC Presidential Candidate and his campaign train over two hours to access the stadium.
An elated Tinubu said all he wanted to do was just dance. And while dancing to an Hausa music, he thanked the people, saying in Hausa “Mungode, mungode, mungode.”
However, in his prepared text, he told Kano State people not to be deceived by allowing the PDP return to power under any guise as, according to him, it would be a return to maladministration in all areas.
He accused the PDP Presidential Candidate, Atiku Abubakar, of not having anything to offer after being part of the PDP administration that plundered Nigeria’s wealth as vice president.
According to the APC flagbearer, River State Governor, Nyesom Wike, was right after all when he declared that Atiku had no integrity.
He accused Atiku of establishing a university too expensive for Nigerians to attend while in office as Vice President.
Tinubu said he has continued to refute the lies concerning his health by his continuous participation in the campaigns, the most rigorous of all the political parties.
In attendance at the rally were the party’s National Chairman Senator Abdullahi Adamu, Vice Presidential Candidate Senator Kashim Shettima, Senate President Senator Ahmed Lawan, and Chairman, Progressives Governors’ Forum and Governor of Kebbi, Senator Atiku Bagudu.
There were also the Director- General of the Tinubu- Shettima Campaign and Plateau State Governor, Hon. Simon Lalong as well as Governors Abdullahi Ganduje (Kano), Nasir el-Rufai (Kaduna), Aminu Masari (Katsina) and Mai Mala Buni (Yobe) among others.
Tinubu said: “We can make Nigeria better, safer, and more prosperous. We can educate our youth, feed our people and put an end to fear. We can do these things. We can move you forward.
“But the others cannot. They want to hold you back so that only they can move forward. They offer nothing but fake promises and easy answers that hold no water. All they can show you is how to hate your fellow Nigerian and reject your neighbour.
“But they cannot show you how to protect our society, feed our people, provide jobs and care for those in true need of help.
“Let me say this clearly and plainly. This campaign is about our collective march to a better Nigeria. Do we march forward? Or do we lose sight of the road?
“We must march forward. But we cannot forget how they frittered away our Commonwealth. For 16 years, they toyed with our lives and the future of this country.
They spent $16 billion on electricity, but they procured darkness instead. They didn’t remember the pipelines and processing facilities to give us electricity. They shared the electricity generation money among themselves and their cronies.
“Neither he nor his party can keep their promise. Tell me how will they keep their promise to the nation. No wonder, their party is in tatters! Governor Wike was right when he talked about a lack of integrity, saying “look at the man and his history.”
“Their contribution to institutional-building is to create an electoral commission to rig elections, not to conduct transparent polls, and to establish EFCC to witch-hunt political opponents, not to fight corruption.
“PDP and its candidate do not have your interests at heart. They do not mean well for you; they do not mean well for the country. They mouthed Green Revolution, but their regime only worked to increase food importation bill for their 16 years. What they understand is ‘consumption economy’ not ‘production-based economy’.”
He listed some of President Buhari’s achievements in his eight years to include the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme particularly in rice production, the Lagos-Ibadan highway which the PDP failed to fix and the Second Niger Bridge which has just been opened among many other infrastructure projects.
He said if elected, he would rework the public finance system to unlock the avenues for more revenues for the country just like he did in Lagos as governor.
Speaking specifically about Kano, Tinubu promised to consolidate the gains recorded in the agriculture sector.
“For this important Kano city, we shall work with the state government to make it a first class economic mega city. Also, the famous dams such Tiga, Chalawa Gorge, Thomas, Kusalla, will get special attention.
“We shall increase irrigated land, create water catchments and implement other measures that will allow you to cultivate these lands all year round – improving productivity, creating jobs and increasing food supply while ending hunger.
“Through Commodity Exchange boards and better credit access, we will guarantee incomes for farmers while also allowing them to get affordable loans to improve their output and incomes.
“The commercial expertise of traders and businessmen in Kwari Textile Market, Sabongari Market, Singer Market will be further encouraged. Their ability to serve Kano, the Northwest, and the rest of this region of sub-Saharan Africa will be enhanced.
“My industrial policy shall revive the respected but now idle industrial estates in Sharada, Bompai, Panshekara, Jogana, etc. We have the policies and tools to make them competitive and to create thousands and thousands of new jobs for you.
“Kano’s brilliant innovators and entrepreneurs must excel and we will support them. The industrial hubs we create will expand the state’s manufacturing and commercial bases. The Digital economy, creative industries and agro-processing will flourish here. The active GSM markets in Kano will increasingly trade in products produced or assembled in Kano,” he said.
He also promised to hasten the Kano – Lagos rail line for easy movement of goods and services, while the Kano-Maiduguri and Kano-Kaduna-Abuja roads will be improved.
“I am your own. Kano and Lagos are the twin cities of North and South. Let us further cement that relationship not only to improve the two cities, but to move the entire nation. Let us join together for a better tomorrow. Let us renew hope,” Tinubu added.
Ganduje, while welcoming the people, thanked them for turning out in large numbers, saying their support for Asíwájú Tinubu is not misplaced because “he has been tested and found worthy and can be trusted to deliver for the country.”
Both Senate President Lawan and Governor Masari said the massive turnout of people in Kano was now a challenge for other APC states to brace up.