Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the national leader of All Progressives Congress, APC, on Saturday, April 16, 2022, said that Nigerians are tired of excuses and lamentations of the past, which include insecurity, epileptic power supply, banditry, and a comatose an economy. He, however, assured us that a united and bandit-free Nigeria is possible.
Tinubu spoke at a grand rally by over 40, 000 youths under the aegis of the Progressive Youth of South-Wet to declare their support for his presidential aspiration at the Mobolaji Johnson Arena, Onikan, Lagos.
The youths who are from Lagos, Ogun, Osun, Ekiti, Ondo, and Oyo states had converged on Lagos in large numbers to drum up support for the aspiration of the party’s national leader.
Tinubu, while addressing the teeming youths, urged them to team up with him to change the story of Nigeria.
He stated: “All you need is courage, determination, and perseverance. If YouTube alone has 2.9 billion people following it, including all of you standing here, then Nigeria can excel. We can do it, you must develop a can-do attitude; you must believe that this country is yours and you want to change the story. You must change the story of potential, the story of banditry; you must change the story of tribalism.
“We, as a nation, can conveniently feed ourselves by being creative, visionary, and committed. Anybody who says we cannot, they can get out, because it is voluntary. We cannot continue the lamentation of the past, we cannot continue with excuses of power failure. No nation made rapid development without electricity. Give us light and if we cannot be successful then you can abuse us; you cannot give us erratic light that is undependable and then blame us that we are lazy.
“Nigerians, it is about time, we have enough gas to fire up electricity and supply the rest of Europe to make money. You know it. We don’t want to bore you with it. When I started, we used to pick dead bodies on the streets, but today Lagos is one of the cleanest, most progressive states in the country.’
Tinubu urged the youths to revalidate their Permanent Voters Cards, PVCs, and be ready to vote in the forthcoming 2023 general elections.
In his keynote address, Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who appreciated the grand support for Tinubu, noted that youths would continue to be identified as critical stakeholders, just as he enjoined all delegates to the APC primary to exercise their franchise wisely.
The South-West youth leaders at the event took their turns to speak on why they were promoting Tinubu to become the next president of Nigeria, come 2023.
Speaking, Dr. Muritala Seriki, Dayo Israel, Muhammed Sulaiman, among others applauded the achievements of Tinubu in infrastructure, education, and Internally Generated Revenue, IGR, while he was governor of the state, saying some of them were his products having brought them to the level they had attained presently.
This was just as they described the APC national leader as a detribalized Nigerian, who would take the country to greater heights, come 2023 if voted as president.
Seriki, in his speech, itemised the achievements of the former Lagos State governor including an increase in the state’s IGR that brought about growth and development in all sectors of the economy, describing him as a detribalized Nigerian who would replicate his achievements in Lagos at the national level if elected the country’s next president.
Israel, who also spoke in the same vein, charged the youth to go for their voter cards and be prepared to vote in the coming general elections, saying that they should be prepared to speak with their votes by electing Tinubu as the next president of the country.
Sulaimon, who also paid tributes to the APC national leader’s leadership quality as well as his closeness to the youth, assured that all the youths in the North-Central were behind Tinubu on his ambition to become Nigeria’s president in 2023, even as he prayed for the fulfilment of his dream.
The support for Tinubu’s presidential election was not limited to the youth as South-West state assemblies also threw their support at the event.
Desmond Elliot, a member of Lagos State House of Assembly, representing Surulere Constituency 1, said the state assemblies in the zone were unanimous in their support for Tinubu’s presidential ambition.
Source: The Guardian
