Tinubu to Jonathan: go

Tinubu

President Goodluck Jonathan got some home truth yesterday – he should resign for failing to tame the insecurity monster shaking Nigeria.

That was the position of All Progressives Congress (APC) leader Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, where Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed announced his plan to run for a second term in office.

A huge crowd attended the rally.

At the ceremony were former Head of State and APC’s presidential aspirant General Muhammadu Buhari, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, governors of Imo, Rivers, Kano, Sokoto and Edo states —Owelle Rochas Okorocha, Chibuike Amaechi, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, Aliyu Wamakko and Adams Oshiomhole.

Others include House of Representatives Speaker Aminu Tambuwal, Senator Bukola Saraki, former governors of Kwara and Ekiti states, Alhaji Shaaba Lafiagi and Dr Kayode Fayemi, APC’s spokesperson Lai Mohammed, Board of Trustees member Abubakar K. Baraje and Assembly Speaker Razak Atunwa etc .

Said Tinubu: “I saw the sea of displaced persons caused by the Boko Haram insurgents and the lies coming from Jonathan’s administration. They have exhibited failure, lack of capacity, vision, creativity; the lie of yesterday is what they repeat today and it is what they will repeat tomorrow. They are lying to you.

“They are lying about the security; toying about the security of this country. I don’t have time to explain the logic of their lies.

“But if you control the armed forces and you are the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic, why should any part of this country be under occupation? And you give us excuses every day. In any civilized country, Jonathan should resign. But if he will not resign, he should wait for our broom, we will sweep them.

“I will come back. This is just the endorsement of Governor Ahmed; that he will be re-elected by the grace of God, with the support of you people here and those outside there. The unemployment situation will be conquered by this administration of APC. We have the vision for the security of the lives of our children.

“The thieves that daily steal your money have not given you any job; they cannot create jobs and they are starving states of funds to pay workers’ salaries. The best thing to do is to sweep them away through broom revolution. APC is a party of the masses.

It now behooves you to begin a house-to-house campaign that this is a party of the masses.

“You had not seen Bukola and myself mounting the same podium campaigning for the same party before this time. This is a new beginning. This is a time of good things and tidings from us. We have brought good luck and commonsense revolution.

“Now it is time to apply commonsense revolution and it is about your lives. It is about your education, your jobs and about the security of this country. We stay together since independence and we will remain together. Anything affecting any section of this country affects all of us.

“I want to thank all of you. Let me forget the protocol, because you are the voters. You are the people who must vote. We bring the greetings and respect of Lagos, Oyo, Osun, Ogun, Ekiti, Edo, Rivers, Akwa Ibom and the entire APC states in Nigeria.

“What I want to beg of you is to be ready to defend for change. The race has started again. We have endorsed Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed for second term in office as he has performed creditably, just like his predecessor, Senator Bukola Saraki.”

Tambuwal said APC’s administration at all levels would engender prosperity and eradicate poverty.

The Speaker added that: “By voting APC at the centre, you will be voting for prosperity and eradication of poverty. What we are witnessing today in Nigeria is not governance, but mis-governance. We are witnessing a system that does not have the interest of the people of this country at heart.  It is also incumbent on us as a people to turn en-masse and vote out Goodluck Ebele Jonathan come 2015. That will bring peace, progress and development of Nigeria.

“In Kwara State your political history is very rich. You have had the foundation of the political struggle of this state laid by our late leader, Dr Olusola Saraki. This structure that is being sustained by God Almighty has always delivered Kwara to the right place. I believe that this time around, there will not be anything different.

“With the support of the people of the state, APC shall form 100 per cent the government in the state from the local council to state Assembly and to the Government House.

 Eventually and ultimately, the state has always been providing leadership in the politics of this country.

“When it comes to presidential elections, I am sure that the state will provide such leadership to the extent that we shall deliver this country to the government at the centre to APC.”

Amaechi said the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) does not have God.

Said he: “I am very impressed with the number of persons that I have seen here today. What you must do is to stop PDP from rigging us. You must go out that day to stop them from rigging us. When you vote, do not go home at all. They will bring soldiers and police, remain there. If they want to kill us, let them kill us. If you go home, you will hear a different result.  Stay there and make sure that nobody rigs you out.

“They have soldiers and police, they do not have God. God is in APC. That is the problem they have and once God is in APC, and we work with God, we shall defeat them.You know your governor will do better, if you have an APC presidential candidate who wins the next election.

“The reason is that currently, they are stealing money.  The money we should use in building our schools, more hospitals, more transport and other amenities, they are putting it in their pockets. They are taking the money to South Africa.

“We thank God we saw small; you do not know the ones we are not seeing. So, let’s vote them out so that we can vote in a better president from APC and our money will remain here. Can’t we manufacture our own guns? Why can’t we?  “Mubi has been over-run by 30 to 40 young boys who are not trained as soldiers? It simply shows that we are not funding our military. It is time to fund our military because our military has the capacity to chase away these boys. But we need to treat our military with respect and with necessary support and we will win them.

“This is the time to say the truth. The problem with the other party is that they do not know the truth and they do not say the truth at all. If a man does well, what do you tell him? You tell him ‘thank you’, is that not? And that is what we are here to do to tell your governor thank you.”

Kwankwaso said: “We are removing the incompetent government in Abuja. By voting for APC, we are bringing in employment for our young men and women, we are voting for peace, development in Kwara and in Nigeria.”

Ahmed promised to accelerate the development of the state – if re-elected.

“By the grace of God and with your mandate, we intend to accelerate the development of our state when re-elected.

 “I will boost local economy through the establishment of an Independent Power Project (IPP) that will power industrial clusters across the state, stimulate jobs and improve power supply to our communities.

“By the grace of God, we will upscale our Education Reforms, with the complete overhaul and modernisation of 120 secondary schools across the state as we start the process of benchmarking our schools against global best practice.

“In terms of physical infrastructure, we will connect more of our communities with urban and rural roads, including roads designated as Federal, thus opening up our state for greater development.”