By Felix Durumbah, Zinathayat Muhammad Salim and Zion Chris
A glittering array of heavyweights of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) today (Wednesday, 16 November, 2022) converged on the Abuja International Conference Centre (AICC) where the Tinubu/Shettima Grassroots Independent Campaign Council held a retreat.
The AICC’s Aso Hall venue of the event was filled to the brim with some of the party’s who’s who.
Among the political titans who graced the event were two former Governors, Tanko Al-Makura (now a senator, and former Governor of Nasarawa state) as well as Malam Isa Yuguda (Bauchi state).
There were also former Minister of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbeh; Senator Andy Uba (APC governorship candidate in the last election in Anambra state); Senator Ita Enang; and Senator Binta Masi Garba.
Not left out where former National Secretary, APC, Arc. Waziri Bulama; former presidential aspirant Adamu Garba; and Executive Director, APC News Online, Hajia Aisha Umar Halilu.
Making his presentation, Chief Ogbeh told the gathering that both the APC presidential flag bearer, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and the vice presidential candidate, Senator Kashim Shettima, have never demonstrated any signs of religious extremism.
Chied Ogbeh, a Christian, said he knows the duo personally, insisting that they are no religious fundamentalists.
He said: ‘’Both Tinubu and Shettima have never shown any sign of religious extremism.’’
The former Minister was optimistic that Tinubu will win the 2023 presidential elections and urged Grassroots Independent Campaign Council to get the job done.
Also speaking, Al-Makura, who predicted that the elections would be ‘’scientific and pragmatic unlike before’’, however, described Tinubu as ‘’a highly cosmopolitan leader, versatile in social, economic, cultural and other values, and is a listening leader’’ and who will win the presidential poll.
On Shettima, the former Governor said he is ‘’a go-getter.’’
According to him, Shettima, as Borno state governor, faced the sort of crisis the North-Eastern state had never known in its history—the Boko Haram insurgency—,pointing out that it goes a lot to show the character of the vice presidential candidate that rather than flee Borno during the crisis, he stayed back to tackle the challenge.
Another speaker, Arc. Bulama, stressed that President Muhammadu Buhari is a stickler for accountability and transparency in elections, saying the president has always believed that the will of the people must prevail.
Bulama stated that the achievements of the APC federal and state governments are ‘’too many, but under-reported’’, insisting that people at the grassroots should be consistently informed of these accomplishments which, he noted, have changed lives for the better.
