2023: It’s time for North to pay Tinubu back- Shettima

The vice presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Kashim Shettima, says it is now time for the north to repay the electoral support which the party’s flag bearer, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has given the region over the years.

Shettima, speaking yesterday in Abuja during the unveiling of the Tinubu/Shettima Door-To-Door grassroots mobilisation campaign vehicles donated by the Northern APC State Assembly Speakers, said the APC presidential candidate had always given his all to the North.

He emphasised Tinubu’s contribution to giving former vice president Atiku Abubakar, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, and President Muhammadu Buhari platforms to pursue their presidential dreams in 2007 and 2015.

Asiwaju Tinubu gave Atiku Abubakar the platform of the Action Congress (AC) on which he ran for president in 2007 after the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) dehumanised him and expelled him from the party, Shettima claimed.

“Similarly, in 2011, Asiwaju gave Nuhu Ribadu the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) platform to run for president,” he continued.

President Muhammadu Buhari would not have secured the APC presidential ticket to run in 2015 if Asiwaju Tinubu had not rallied the whole APC Southwest delegation behind him in 2014.

“By supporting Northern presidential candidates at different points in the past, Tinubu strongly advocated for justice, equity, and fairness.

Thus, Northern Nigeria will get the chance to repay Tinubu for his generosity and assistance shown to them during previous elections during the 2023 election.

Shettima also recounted how Tinubu was crucial in stopping the PDP’s alleged election rigging apparatus in the Southwest states of Osun, Ekiti, and Ondo in 2007.

He claimed that Tinubu, if elected in the upcoming elections, would create a new Nigeria of which every citizen would be proud because he is gifted with intelligence, capacity, and the ability to deliver.

According to The Nation, former governor of Borno State praised the speakers for their kindness, saying it would help the APC campaign a lot.

The PDP, he added, “spent 16 years forgetting what the railway can achieve for the country.” He also took a shot at them. I’m puzzled as to how the PDP is still a political entity.

They are still squabbling over who will lead their party. We don’t resemble them. We are wiser. The Poverty Development Party does not know the path as well as we do.

We identify as a progressive party. We are doers and thinkers. For the sake of our children’s future, we have the insight, fortitude, perseverance, and resolve to recognise and address Nigeria’s issues. The trip has already begun.