Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, All Progressives Congress(APC) presidential candidate, has tasked governorship and National Assembly candidates of the party to protect Nigeria’s future by ensuring clear victory in the 2023 general election.
He said this at a meeting with APC governorship and National Assembly candidates on Sunday in Abuja, adding that they must collectively work for the party’s victory in the general election at all levels.
“We have the mandate to deliver the party to victory so that we may protect Nigeria from those who will devour all of its fruits,” Tinubu said.
According to him, this is critical to ensure that the party’s project of growth and development for the country is assured.
Tinubu who said he had been eager to meet with the party’s candidates, also urged them to ensure that they do not disappoint members of the party who elected them to fly the tickets at the poll.
“With the many unproductive years of the former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)’s government, Nigerians and indeed APC members are expecting a new lease of life from the candidates.
“I am pleased to meet with you today because, in you, I see our party’s hope and path to success, in you I see the hope of historic national progress as well.
“As so often in life, victory is not a cause for rest or celebration, it is a call to a greater challenge and harder toil.
“Thus, you all have won the primaries, but now must climb the higher mountain called the general election,” he said.
Tinubu said that the APC was formed not just to be another political party, but as a champion of the people to rescue democracy from the ravages of the PDP who boasted of ruling the country for 60 years.
According to him, the APC was formed to rescue the people and their collective prosperity from the avarice and greed of an elite that will devour the nation’s God-given endowment.
“If we allow such people back into power, as those flying our party’s flag, we carry a heavy burden on our shoulders.
“We have the mandate to deliver the party to victory so that we may protect Nigeria from those who would devour all of its fruits.
“The party has placed its trust in us. Democratic victory in the coming elections is a task we must accomplish,” he stressed.
Tinubu urged the party’s candidates to go to the poll starting from the presidential and National Assembly election on Feb. 25 to the governorship and state Houses of Assembly election on March 11 with a united front.
The former two-term governor of Lagos State promised to continue to work for everyone, even as he also desired to become the country’s next president.
“But winning takes us working as a united force, we have to act like the broom, the symbol of our party.
“A stick cannot clean any dirt, but coming together under the band as one, we can sweep aside all the bad and wrong things that impede our nation’s growth and development.
“As individuals we must strive to win our respective elections, but that is not enough. We have to work together to deliver everyone contesting in our party,” he said.
He added that the presidential election, for example, was not solely about Tinubu, but the project of all APC members just as the election of the party’s candidates was equally his project.
“We need each other, whatever position you are contesting, you need me as much as I need you.
“If I work for you, I am helping myself; if you mobilise for me, you are working for yourself at the same time. Our individual and collective fates are one.
“Let us win and rise together. This is as it should be.I, therefore, rededicate myself to the victory of you all just as I do for myself.
“As you can see, they call me weak, but I am canvassing back and forth and in every corner and space of the nation. My opponents are not,”Tinubu said.
He added that he was already outworking his opponents because the general election was a great mission for him, much more than his personal ambition.
He charged the party’s candidates to re-dedicate themselves to the course of the party and the county’s future, saying he could not be everywhere and no one could.
Tinubu stressed that the party’s strength lied in the number and spread of its members and candidates.
“Having you across the length spread of this country makes me comfortable.
“I am working round the clock for our collective victory, we all should not rest until the entire election is over and victory is ours,” he said.
The meeting which attracted a large number of APC candidates was attended by the National Chairman, Sen. Abdullahi Adamu and Senate President, Ahmed Lawan.
Speaker, House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, some APC governors, National Working Committee (NWC) members and the Presidential Campaign Council also attended the meeting.