The presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has explained reasons he wants to be Nigeria’s president.
Nigeria goes into the presidential poll on Saturday to elect a new president.
Tinubu, in a statement he personally signed, admitted that the office of the president of Nigeria is not one of pleasure, but that it would demand the highest standard of hard work, discipline, focus, determination and commitment on the part of the next President.
He pledged solemnly that his Vice-President and him would dedicate themselves wholeheartedly to working for the greatest good and happiness of the greatest number of Nigerians.
Tinubu stated that Shettima and him had outstanding records of high performance in public office as Governors of their states.
He said in Lagos, where he served as Governor for eight remarkable years, he led a team of talented, hardworking, creative, intelligent and purposeful people that recalibrated governance and set new standard in good governance that continued to propel the state to greater growth and development till date.
Tinubu added: that Lagos State is the 5th largest economy in Africa didn’t happen by chance. It is a product of consistent hardwork and creative leadership. We seek to demonstrate on national scale that energy and capacity that transformed our state to bring prosperity to all Nigerians.”
Read full speech below:
TO MY COMPATRIOTS: WHY I SEEK YOUR MANDATE TO BE PRESIDENT OF NIGERIA
Fellow Nigerians, it is with a tremendous sense of history and an immense awareness of the challenges ahead of us as a country that I address you today. For the past few months, my running mate, Senator Kashim Shettima and I and other leaders of our great party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) have traversed the length and breadth of our country in the course of our campaigns for the forthcoming presidential, governorship and legislative elections at all levels.
I have been overwhelmed by the enthusiastic crowds that have trooped out to receive us in all the states we visited. On Tuesday, we had the grand finale of our rally in Lagos State. It is obvious to me from my interaction with our people across the country that, despite our challenges, the APC enjoys tremendous goodwill among the vast majority of our people.
In all the states we have visited, there are visible landmarks of the huge impact the President Muhammadu Buhari administration has made in terms of infrastructural development in the form of rural and urban roads and expressways, modern railway tracks, as well as improved airport facilities, among others.
Millions of our poor and vulnerable people have benefitted from the various social intervention programmes of the Buhari administration. The amounts disbursed to these categories of our people are unprecedented in terms of the sheer transfer of resources to the less privileged sections of the population not only in our country but in Africa. It is remarkable and ironical that those who were in power for 16 years earned far higher revenues from petroleum than we did and yet were unable to effectively tackle neither infrastructure nor poverty. They now have the temerity to cast aspersions on the APC administration.
Our campaign tours demonstrated clearly to us that you, our people, are not deceived.
Of course, we are aware of the hardships suffered by our people and the challenges confronting our country. Some of these could have been mitigated by better conceptualized and articulated policies. The truth is that there can be no perfect government in any human community.
Some of the problems are also of global origin such as the unanticipated COVID-19 pandemic that disrupted economies worldwide or the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war that has disrupted global food and fuel supply chains.
It is clear to me that there is a lot that the Buhari administration has done that are laudable in the areas of infrastructure, agriculture and poverty alleviation. We must build upon these achievements.
There are also some sectors where we must adopt new approaches and stress new priorities.
What is clear is that the Office of the President of Nigeria is not one of pleasure. Rather, it will demand the highest standard of hard work, discipline, focus, determination and commitment on the part of the next President.
I pledge solemnly that my Vice-President and I will dedicate ourselves wholeheartedly to working for the greatest good and happiness of the greatest number of Nigerians.
Senator Shettima and I have outstanding records of high performance in public office as Governors of our states. In Lagos, where I served as Governor for 8 remarkable years, I led a team of talented, hardworking, creative, intelligent and purposeful people that recalibrated governance and set new standard in good governance that continues to propel the state to greater growth and development till date. That Lagos State is the 5th largest economy in Africa didn’t happen by chance. It is a product of consistent hardwork and creative leadership.
credit: PM News
