By Emmanuel Badejo, Assistant Editor, Jide Orintunsin, Grace Obike, Abuja and Ogochukwu Anioke, Abakaliki 

• Youths, students: no doctor’s report shows worry about our candidate’s health

• ‘Ex-governor’s footprints everywhere’

The Deputy Director of Multi-Media for Tinubu’s Presidential Campaign Organisation (PCO), Muhammed Bulama, has said All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, and his running mate, Senator Kashim Shettima, make the most outstanding presidential pair among all the political parties.

Bulama spoke yesterday on “Politics Today”, a Channels Television evening programme.

The deputy director said allegations of corruption against Asiwaju Tinubu were entirely false.

He said: “I don’t think we have any problem selling our candidates. And fortunately for us, we have sellable candidates in the persons of Aswiaju Bola Tinubu and Senator Kashim Shettima. Both of them have performed and their works speak volume.

“Though I am not a Lagosian, I am familiar with Lagos. You will agree with me that our presidential candidate transformed Lagos to what it is today. It is now a mega city.

“Look at all the infrastructure coming up in Lagos. These are too numerous for me to mention. What was the state of Lagos before Asiwaju Tinubu and what is it today?

“We are going to sell our party and its candidates on the basis of verifiable track records in Lagos and Borno states. Let the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, tell us what he did in Anambra that is worth replicating at the centre. Let us ask the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, to tell us what he has done that is worth replicating at the centre.

Read Also: 2023: Why Igbo should vote for Tinubu, by APC youth leader

“The ticket of the APC is the most prominent as both of our candidates have been senators and executive governors and they delivered beyond imagination.”

On rumours of corruption being peddled against the APC candidate, Bulama said: “No court in or outside Nigeria has condemned or convicted Asiwaju Tinubu on the basis of corruption. He has been subjected to all kinds of intrigues and he has always come out clean.”

Also, Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Mr. Festus Keyamo (SAN), has said Nigeria owes the sustenance of the current multiparty democracy to the doggedness and integrity of Asiwaju Tinubu.

The minister said it took the forthrightness of the former Lagos State governor to stand against the deft moves by the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to turn the country into a one-party state in 2003.

Keyamo spoke at the unveiling of a new support group, The Progressives Forum (TPF), formerly the All Progressives Youth Forum (APYF), yesterday in Abuja.

He said: “Without Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, we will not have a multiparty democracy today. That’s the truth! He has earned it. If you were wise enough in 2003, that was a turning point in Nigeria’s democracy. The PDP wiped out all the people and states in both the South and North.

“But Asiwaju fought back and kept Lagos. Although they nearly entered Lagos, he fought fiercely to recover it. At that point, they came to him and said: ‘Oya, Asiwaju, come to PDP so that you won’t have problems in 2007’.”

Also, the Youths and Students wing of the ruling APC has assured Nigerians that Asiwaju Tinubu is healthy and fit for Presidency.

The Director General of APC Youths and Students Council, Mazi Onyirimba Ezenwa, gave the assurance when the group visited the founder of Follow the Money and Co-Convener of Not Too Young To Run Bill, Hamzat Lawal, yesterday in Abuja.

Ezenwa said: “On the aspect of Asiwaju’s health, there has been no certified doctor’s report that he is not healthy to be President. Until we have a copy of that, we  will not refer to all talks of him not being healthy to run for the Presidency.”

Also, the national executive of Tinubu Network Organisation (TNO) has said Asiwaju Tinubu has his footprints of achievements in all sectors.

The organisation promised to mobilise its 998,484 members in the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to work for the actualisation of the Asiwaju Bola Tinubu/Senator Kashim Shettima presidency in 2023.

The TNO executive spoke when they visited the Tinubu/Shettima presidential campaign office yesterday in Abuja.

Its Director of Administration (South), Jimoh Olorede, who was the organisation’s Coordinator for Osun State, said: “The Asiwaju’s footprints are evident everywhere: in economy, governance, technology and all. He is known for scouting for talents and bringing them to the fore. He has been doing this for getting to three decades now.

“In today’s Nigeria, BAT is beyond the Southwest states; he has replicated himself in the whole of the country and even beyond our national boundaries as an international stakeholder. Everyone gives testimonies on how he has come through for them in the past years.

“Giving him our mandate, support and solidarity is the best way to repay him for his benefaction, especially in the areas of human, capital and national development. And this is our collective responsibility.”

Another support group, Patriotic Movement for Asiwaju 2023 (PMA), has begun house-to-house campaigns for Asiwaju Tinubu and other APC candidates in Ebonyi State.

PMA’s National Secretary Uchechukwu Okafor said this at the kick-off of the campaign initiative yesterday in Abakaliki, the state capital.

He said: “We have come to flag off the house-to-house campaign for our presidential candidate, Asiwaju Tinubu in Ebonyi State. Wherever you go, tell people about the potentials of having Asiwaju Tinubu as our President in 2023. We have to support him and APC candidates in Ebonyi State.”