By EMMANUEL MOGBEDE
ABUJA- The United Kingdom All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) says Nigeria needs a president with the capacity and will power to take it to a higher level.
The Chairman of the council, Mr Joseph Adebola, said this in a statement by Mr Jacob Ogunseye, APC UK Publicity Secretary, in Abuja on Wednesday.
Adebola said that the country needed an individual that would build on President Muhammadu Buhari’s achievements in 2023.
According to him, with the 2023 general elections around the corner, there was a need for the electorate to ensure they made the right choice at the polls.
This, he said, was especially as the usual postulations and juxta-positioning by politicians and pretenders as well as rabble-rousers all jostling for prominence within the political space continued.
Adebola, however, noted that Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the APC 2023 presidential candidate was the man to take the country to higher heights, adding that he was on a mission.
“The country’s next president and Commander-in-Chief must be a person that has the capacity and will power to take the country to a higher level in real terms.
“He has to be a person with the proclivity to unite a country that is beset with agitations for secession and self-governance coming from some sections of the country.
“Nigeria needs a detribalised leader who will expunge religion and ethnic sentiments from our politics and national psyche.
“A leader who will not only place square pegs in square holes in government to ensure swift progress of the country.
“But one who will also not shy away from using his executive powers to fire instantly non-performing government officials and replace them with competent hands,” he said.
Adebola commended President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration for its efforts at diversifying the country’s economy away from reliance on oil into agriculture.
He said the administration’s giant strides in the provision of infrastructures as well as efforts being made at taking 100 million Nigerians out of poverty through its welfare programmes were commendable.
This, he said, included the Social Investment Programme, a first of its kind in the country’s history.
He, however, noted that a lot still needed to be done to satisfy the yearnings of the masses scattered across the country’s six geopolitical zones.
“The country needs a leader who has been tested and trusted through his antecedents, and the electorates must ensure this is taken into account in the forthcoming general elections.
“With a cursory look at the major presidential candidates in the forefront, no other person fits the bill than Sen. Bola Tinubu, the APC presidential candidate.
“What the country needs now more than ever, is a performer which, truth be told, is quintessentially what Asiwaju is, his ability for discovering talents and his knack to nurture them to greatness is legendary,” he said.
He added that Asiwaju was endowed with an uncommon boldness to take difficult decisions when it matters most.
This, he said, was a trait he exhibited during his years as Lagos State governor when the then president, denied the state its monthly allocation in spite of a court ruling to the contrary.
Adebola said rather than be discouraged, Tinubu used the challenge as fodder for turning Lagos State into a pacesetter and the most viable state it is today as the fifth largest economy in Africa.
“Tinubu is a leader who, despite his foibles like every one of us, has had proper tutelage and has paid his dues.
“A few times in the past, he had jettisoned his ambition for the betterment of the country which presupposes that no one is more deserving than him to become the country’s next president.
“Tinubu is an enigma of sorts who combines the rare traits of the ability to roll with the intelligentsia as well as with the downtrodden in equal measures,” he said.
He recalled that during and after his tenure as a two-term former governor of Lagos State, he showed his capacity to identify and nurture talents irrespective of ethnic origin or religion by engaging services to better the fortunes of the state.
He added that the fact that Tinubu also nurtured many into national prominence was a further testament that he was a man in tune with the needs and aspirations of Nigerians.
According to Adebola, Tinubu’s legendary knowledge of the Nigerian economy and the nuances of governance are unmatched.
He said his economic plans for the country proved that he was the man with the right qualities to take the country to a higher level and place it in its rightful place amongst the comity of nations.
Adebola said the APC UK Presidential Campaign Council was gearing for the commencement of the electioneering campaign on Sept. 28, to begin its campaign activities in support of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and the APC.
He added that the council had various activities lined up to sensitise Nigerians about the benefits of voting for Tinubu and the APC in national, state and local wards.
“The gains of this administration must not be allowed to be frittered away by those who placed the country in the sorry state,” he stressed.
According to him, the APC government in 2015, met the country in a sorry state and has made tremendous efforts against all odds to stall its downward spiral.
“Going back to clueless opposition is not an appealing option, forward ever, backward never for Nigeria,” Adebola said(NAN)
