By Harry Awurumibe, Editor, Abuja Bureau
The presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Thursday presented members of his Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) to President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Tinubu who was at the seat of government in the company of his Vice Presidential candidate, Senator Kashim Shettima and Chairman of APC, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, told State House Correspondents shortly after meeting with President Buhari that they were in the Villa to get the blessing of the President before announcing the members of the PCC.
Said he: “We are here to see Mr. President to get his buy-in as the leader of our great party. We are happy that he gave his blessing for us to announce the members of our Presidential Campaign Council. So I don’t have much to say. So enjoy your day, gentlemen”.
Speaking earlier, the APC Chairman said that they came to see President Buhari to get his approval to unveil the PCC members, adding that they are glad he gave his blessing for the official naming of the members of the Council.
The former Nasarawa state governor however gave the members as Mr. Simon Lalong, Governor of Plateau state as Chairman; Mr. Festus Keyamo, Minister of State for Labour and Productivity as Spokesperson and Barrister Hanatu Musa as Deputy Spokesperson of PCC.
Meanwhile, both APC Chairman and Vice presidential candidate have dismissed with the wave of the hand talks of backlash of the party’s choice of the Muslim-Muslim tickets in the 2023 General Elections.
According to Adamu only the opposition and those who have grouse with the APC are talking about the choice Tinubu has made, stressing that the party is fully behind their candidate for the choice of his Vice presidential candidate.
“The thing with human being is that they don’t want to change. There is nothing wrong in the Muslim-Muslim ticket. Only the opposition and persons who are not happy with the party are shouting over the Muslim-Muslim ticket of our party. I assure you that we shall win the 2023 General Election”, APC Chairman posited.
Also, clearing the air on the Muslim-Muslim ticket of the APC, a combative Shettima said emphatically that APC will win the presidential election outrightly while berating the opposition parties that they are afraid of defeat in the 2023 polls.
Said he: “Let me state it clearly that the APC candidates of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and myself have sent shivers to the bone marrows of the opposition parties. They know that they have already lost the coming election hence they are shouting up and down about Muslim-muslim ticket of APC”.
The former Borno state governor digressed from the question on the APC Muslim-Muslim ticket to marketing his principal, Tinubu by reeling out his achievements in politics and economy and his mentoring skills hence he is did not make a mistake by choosing him to be his running mate.
Said: “Ask the other candidates what their achievements are or who they mentored. Look at Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, he grew the economy of Lagos state, Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) from paltry hundreds of thousands of naira monthly to multi million naira and it has continued to grow “.
“I mentored and brought up Professor Babagana Umara Zulum of Borno state so ask other candidates the how the economy of Adamawa state till today is doing”.
