2023: Nigerians tired of excuses, want banditry-free country – Tinubu

National Leader of All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, yesterday declared that Nigerians were tired of excuses and lamentations of the past over the numerous challenges like epileptic power supply and banditry bedeviling the country, adding that a united and banditry-free Nigeria is possible if he is elected as president.

The former Lagos State Governor spoke at a grand rally by youths under the aegis of Progressive Youth of South-West to declare their support for his presidential aspiration at the Mobolaji Johnson Arena, in Onikan area of the state.

The youths from different states in the region, like Lagos, Ogun, Osun, Ekiti, Ondo and Oyo states had converged on Lagos in their large numbers to drum up support for the aspiration of the national leader of the party.

Tinubu while addressing the teeming youths that filled the arena, who he described as the brightest and brilliant, urged them to team up with him in his bid to change the story of Nigeria for the youths and tomorrow which they represent.

He said: ‘’All you need is courage, determination and perseverance, if the YouTube alone has 2.9 billion people following it, including you all standing here, then Nigeria can excel, we can do it, you must develop the can do attitude, you must believe that this country is yours and you want to change the story. You must change the story of potential, the story of banditry and the story of tribalism.

‘’We as a nation can conveniently feed ourselves by being creative, visionary and committed, anybody who says we cannot, they can get out because it is voluntary. We cannot continue the lamentation of the past, we cannot continue with excuses of power failure, there is no nation that made rapid development without electricity, give us light and if we cannot be successful then you can abuse us, you cannot give us erratic light that is undependable and then blame us again that we are lazy.

‘’Nigeria it is about time, we have enough gas to fire up electricity and supply the rest of Europe and make money, long term from it. You know it. We don’t want to bore you with it, when I started we used to pick dead bodies on the streets, but today Lagos is one of the cleanest, most progressive states in the country.’’

He urged the youths to revalidate their Permanent Voters Cards and be ready to vote in the forthcoming 2023 general elections.

In his keynote address, Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu who appreciated the grand support for Asiwaju Tinubu noted that youths wil continue to be identified as critical stakeholders, just as he enjoined all delegates to the APC primary to exercise their franchise wisely.

The South-West youth leaders at the event took turns to speak on why the youths were promoting the APC National Leader, Asiwaju Tinubu, to become the next president of Nigeria, come 2023.

Speaking, Dr. Muritala Seriki, Dayo Israel, Muhammed Sulaiman, among others applauded the achievements of Tinubu in infrastructure, education, and in raising the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of Lagos, while he was governor of the state, saying some of them were his products having brought them to the level they had attained presently.

This was just as they described the APC national leader as a detribalized Nigeria, who would take the country to greater heights, come 2023, if voted as president of the country.

Seriki, in his speech, itemised the achievements of the former Lagos State governor to include increase in the state’s IGR that brought about growth and development in all sectors of the economy, describing him as a detribalized Nigerian who would replicate his achievements in Lagos at the national level if elected the country’s next president.

Israel, who also spoke in the same vein, charged the youths to go for their voter cards and be prepared to vote in the coming general elections, saying that they should be prepared to speak with their votes by electing Asiwaju Tinubu as next president of the country.

According to Sulaimon, who also paid tributes to the APC national leader’s leadership quality as well as his closeness to the youths, assured that all the youths in the North-Central were behind Asiwaju Tinubu on his ambition to become Nigeria’s president in 2023 even as he prayed for him for the fulfilment of the dream.

The support for Tinubu’s presidential election was not limited to the youths as South-West state assemblies also threw their support at the event.

A member of Lagos State House of Assembly, Hon. Desmond Elliot representing Surulere Constituency 1, in his short remarks, said the state assemblies in the zone were unanimous in their support for Asiwaju Tinubu’s presidential ambition.