President Muhammadu Buhari has asked the ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) to take its campaigns to all parts of the country rather than concentrate their activities in Abuja.
According to him, the “real war’’ is in the grassroots and cities across the country.
He gave the advice on Monday at the inauguration of the Tinubu-Shettima Women Presidential Campaign Team held at the State House Conference Centre, Abuja.
Persecondnews reports that the Tinubu-Shettima Presidential Campaign Council has yet to be inaugurated following objections to the 400-member list by the National Chairman of the party, Sen. Abdullahi Adamu.
He had queried the list as being a clear departure from what the NWC agreed with Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
“As this launch is being hosted in Abuja, we must remember that the real war lies in far flung places away from Abuja. The task ahead lies in over 8000 wards and 774 local governments across the country, where party faithful will have to make a case before fellow citizens on our party’s candidate articulating the vision and the programme for the country.
“The campaign council, therefore, should resist the temptation for it to be turned into an Abuja centric activity but establish the connection between the voting public and our presidential candidate, and for other candidates for offices throughout Nigeria that should be the ultimate objective,’’ said Buhari, who was represented by his Chief of Staff, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari.
Describing women generally as his most loyal and supportive allies, the president urged them to transfer the same support they gave him to the party’s presidential candidate, Tinubu.
He added: “Women have remained the most loyal and supportive group in my mission for a better Nigeria despite the challenges. They should extend this same support to our presidential candidate and running mate.
“Considering the strategic role women have played in APC victories, we call on you once again to begin organizing and mobilizing vigorously the electorate at all levels for APC victory at the 2023 polls through the committee in an inclusive and cooperative manner.”
With women accounting for about 47 percent of the nation’s population, Buhari stressed the need for engaging with them and to make a significant inroad into the demographics and voting segments of the population.
“Counting today, we are left with approximately 137 days before the Presidential and National Assembly elections, which are scheduled for February 25, 2023.
“Out of the 36 states of the federation, 30 states will be holding their governorship elections on March 11. The mission that lays ahead of the committee is very clear and time is not on your side.’’
In his speech, Tinubu, said he was very proud of the women and hope that they would vote for the party in the 2023 polls.
Referring to the the main opposition party, the PDP as a party of termites, he said: “They are in the village of lunacy. A nation is not just built on abusive language. 16 years of nothingness, rudderlessness, digging the hole of indebtedness. Never again shall they come back. A new hope is here.’’
Also speaking on the occasion, the Director-General of the party’s Presidential Campaign Council, Plateau Gov. Simon Lalong, appealed to women to eschew character assassination, hate speech and propaganda in their campaigns but make them issue-based.
“Leave that to the opposition and stay with the achievements of our party in women empowerment and also tell them that under the Presidency of Bola Tinubu, Nigerian women and their children will have an even better deal,” he said.
The APC National Chairman, Adamu, said the party was ready to mobilise the women and take advantage of their voting strength.
Among the attendees at the occasion were the First Lady, Mrs Aisha Buhari, the wife of Tinubu’s running mate, Mrs Nana Shettima, governors Hope Uzodinma (Imo), Abdullahi Ganduje (Kano), and Veteran Nollywood actress, Mrs Joke Silva.
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