Each one of us seated and standing here today bears the weight of expectations from both familiar and unknown citizens. We are the gateways to the country of their dream. We are also surrounded by interminable reminders of the promises we make and the consequences of failure. This is why we are here. We are here to reassure ourselves that failing isn’t an option we intend to explore. This collection of visionaries, thinkers, and change-makers is a part of our bid to market our grand vision to Nigerians through the representatives they trust. But, above all, this is a gathering of believers in this great nation and the progressive credentials of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
This incredible episode of our history was produced by a cast of patriots that fought to ensure that our great party panders to the interest of no individual or group. His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari, proved to us once again that his integrity would never be on the shelf for any self-serving bidder, and his intransigent moral principle set in motion a chain of events that led to consolidation of the national interest that paved the way for Asiwaju’s emergence as the APC presidential flag-bearer. The progressive coterie of Northern Governors saved the country and our great party from a calculable implosion when they took a stand to demand power shift to the Southern region. Unfortunately, the leading opposition party set out to exploit the nation’s rotational arrangement and refused to read the national room, and this has long backfired in a fashion that has turned their presidential dream into a televised national circus.
This occasion stands out in our political calendar because it’s the final lap of a streak of hard-fought victories. The battle ahead beckons all our finest minds to stand together. Just like the proverbial reminder that it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a village of resolute believers to preach to a nation as ours and win their hearts. In just a few years, the All Progressives Congress has become a political paragon, bringing much older political organizations to their knees and withstanding long-running disinformation warfare. This couldn’t have been possible without you, this beautiful village of progressive ideologues.
When the Tinubu – Shettima ticket became inevitable, the propaganda ceased to be a barren agenda to mischaracterize the peerless Asiwaju. It became a bigoted campaign to parade this ticket as something other than an outcome of a pragmatic democracy to offer Nigerians transformative governance. But this village of yours stood by us and endured the mischief and falsehood woven to undermine our great party’s wisdom. It’s also not the architecture and geography of our places of worship that seems to unsettle the partisan opposition and their foot-soldiers as inferred from their hate campaigns; it’s the towering profiles of the choices you have made and the superiority of our ideas.
What has been missing in their obsessive propaganda in these past months is the refusal to admit that our ticket is neither an appeal to an ethnic nor religious monolith. Our gathering across ethnic, religious and regional lines today is unmissable proof of that. Herein lies their failure. They have refused to acknowledge politics as a domain of mathematics, and that the variables are the conscious and critical humans who gravitate towards and away from the dreams promised by each political candidate. You can’t cite the desire of a small number as superior to that of a high number and call that democracy, and that’s how the mind of these partisan ravagers function. There’s a name for challenging the choices of the majority. It’s called tyranny, and none of us here practises that.
Asiwaju’s emergence as the presidential flag-bearer of our great party last June could only have happened in a system where two isn’t superior to seven. He was the wish and the prayer point of our perceptive delegates who gathered at Eagle Square to point Nigerians towards the path of prosperity. The delegates were representatives of all our ethnic groups, religions and regions and their overwhelming choice of Asiwaju amidst the disinformation and bigotry validates the reason for our gathering today. We are merely responding to the voices and choices of those we represent, those whose goodwill and referendums legitimize our purpose.
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You, ladies and gentlemen, must never forget the crushing weight we carry, this burden of expectations from those we represent. Because of you, we have a democracy that defies the dictation of any self-serving clique. Because of you, those who’ve weaponized their religious, ethnic and regional affiliations have failed to tear us apart. Because of you, Nigerians have learnt to fight for the democracy they desire. Because of you, we have the inimitable Asiwaju on the way to take charge of the affairs of this great country. There couldn’t have been a village more dependable than you.
The series of fictions written to undermine us tells you how hard you’ve worked to make sure that no candidate appears even in the rear light of this vehicle conveying us to the finish line of the presidential race. We’ve maintained the lead from the word go because of your focus and commitment to this cause. You have refused to succumb to pedestrian blackmails. You have also refused to pay mind to the fireworks of distractions from the usual suspects. This is why you were chosen. You are not here by any accident, but as a testament to your work ethic and belief in Asiwaju’s capability to deliver the Nigeria of your dream.
For us, there’s no incentive greater than your convictions and those of the citizens we must work together to assure of our abiding pledge to deliver on our electoral promises. What we have accomplished as a party and as a campaign council isn’t a magic trick. You are the engineers of this revolutionary hankering for a ticket that has brought back memories of a similar political experiment experienced thirty years ago. Indeed, history is cyclical and we are lucky to be the lead characters of this opportunity to renew your faith in the possibilities of this great nation.
You are the reason Nigerians have paused to scrutinize us based on facts, and have yielded to the message of hope we’ve promised. You are the reason an overwhelming segment of Nigerians has learnt to defy the stereotype that this country is irredeemably sectionalized and incapable of prioritizing reasons over sentiments. This was the exact mood of the nation thirty years ago, and the expanding endorsement of Asiwaju – Shettima ticket signals to the anarchists and conflict profiteers to seek a meal ticket other than the gullibility of Nigerians.
As we prepare to venture out to sell our action plan to our fellow citizens, let’s carry with us the dignifying badges of our ambassadorial responsibility and expectations and adhere to the collective principles that have kept us standing this tall and this long. Our strength isn’t just our numerical size, but our unpretentious brotherhood and sisterhood. No amount of money can buy the moral principle that’s brought you this far, and activating this in the face of temptations must be your survival instinct in this forest of uncertainties we call politics.
Even if this gathering isn’t the largest collection of progressives this country has ever seen, which is a challenge for our political anthropologists, there’s none as formidable as it in Nigeria today. Our resolve isn’t just to win the forthcoming presidential election, but to do so as a unified village. So, we count on you—your wisdom and judgement—to create this benign atmosphere where every Nigerian sees the other as a brother or sister and partakes in joining us to build the biggest village possible in making our ticket and government the hope of the nation.
I am lucky to be a part of this village, drawing inspiration from your sacrifices and selflessness in promoting Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the best alternative for Nigerians in 2023. What has set us apart is this realization that no matter our differences and misunderstandings, politics isn’t designed for hyper-individualism. Politics entails conscious networking to produce cross-regional alliances and harmonise the most superior of shared ideas. There’s no doubt that Nigerians have found in the APC the Moses to lead them to the Promised Land.
- Being an address by Senator Kashim Shettima, Vice-Presidential Candidate of the All Progressives Congress at the Inauguration of the Presidential Campaign Council and Unveiling of the Action Plan, at the State House Banquet Hall, Abuja, yesterday.