…says Tinubu not at loggerheads with Buhari over fuel scarcity, Naira redesign 

…assures that All hope is not lost yet on LG autonomy 

By Henry Umoru 

NEW BUSSA- AHEAD of the Saturday, 25th February Presidential and National Assembly election, the Deputy Whip of the Senate, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, APC, Niger North has said that the party’s Presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola  Tinubu and his running mate, Senator Kashim Shettima all have what would be required to sustain the legacy of President Muhammadu Buhari.

Speaking on Monday at the Commissioning of the  rehabilitated New- Bussa Township Stadium, Borgu, Niger State, the Deputy Chief Whip  declared that President Buhari cannot be at loggerhead with Senator Tinubu who he said is the best to continue from where he stopped against the backdrop that Buhari would  like his legacies to be sustained hence the reason he has been at the forefront campaigning for the APC Presidential candidate.

Read also: Old Naira: We were happy when Buhari granted our request for extension – Tinubu

Senator Abdullahi  was reacting to one of the questions asked on the insinuations that the candidate’s outbursts against the fuel scarcity and the scarcity of new Naira Notes were targeted against the Presidency.

The Deputy Chief Whip said, “All I want to tell you Is that we are working very hard to deliver our party, our party is intact. Because of the good work our father has been doing.  

“He is aware and very patriotically so that he needs his legacy to be sustained and that is why he said he is a democrat,  he is going to allow the Democratic process to take place. That is leadership and that is how our presidential candidate emerged.

“As we are going to the national election, we believe as the President of this country, his duty is to make sure that there is credible election.  

“We are asking for credible election and we are going to anchor our victory on credible election and that is why we are working very hard. Our project 774 is one out of several thousands support groups that that are working day and night in all corners of this country to galvanise support. 

“Just like our Presidential Campaign Council is going from State to State to campaign massively asking Nigerians to give them this opportunity and their word is their bond.  

“I believe so because they have done so because in the past they have been tested and they have been trusted.  They have the character they have the capability to deliver on their promises

He said there was nothing wrong with the views expressed by Tinubu in Abeokuta. 

“That is his view. Is there anything wrong with him expressing his view” I am in the National Assembly and we have moved motions for its extension.The concern we are showing is because of Nigerians.”

According Abdullahi,  at home in his Senatorial district, his constituents know him as they flock around him, but he can no longer attend to them because he does not  have the cash to give them again.

“But I am not angry. I believe it is a phase and it is a sacrifice we must all make to make our country better but what we are saying is let it have human face and our president is a listening President, he has heard the cries of our people and there is an extension so I ask all Nigerians to use the extension to do the needful let them not wait until the last day again.

On the Local Government autonomy in the constitutional amendment, Abdullahi who  urged Nigerians to mount pressure on the remaining state assemblies to vote in favour of local government autonomy, said, “Iam still very hopeful that local government autonomy will be approved because we still have some states that are yet to vote on the constitution amendment bills. 

“Out of the 27 states that have voted, some supported local government autonomy. So, it is still possible that we will achieve the required number. When the local government is developed, then we are developing Nigeria.”

On the rehabilitated Stadium in his hometown, Senator Sabi Abdullahi said, “We are here to commission the New Bussa Township stadium which was renovated and remodernised by me. This place used to be the Nigeria Army Corps of Engineers. This used to be their station. They were here immediately after the civil war. This field used to be called army engineer football field.

“We do all ceremonies here; Oct. 1, Children’s Day. Overtime, this place became obsolete and abandoned, attempt was made to reconstruct it. It failed and the place became more or less a collection point for miscreants.

“It is part of my intervention. The whole idea is to create that enabling environment for the youths to showcase their talents. All of us know today that football is a multi-billion dollar industry. The last world cup made a profit of billions. It is only possible for you to attract whatever football has when you have the facilities.So this place is an attempt for us to have such kind of facilities.”

Speaking on the Project 774 for Tinubu/ Shettima, 2023, Senator Sabi Abdullahi who is the National Coordinator said, “Project 774 is a support group that was packaged by a collection of very patriotic APC members who are Nigerians from all over the 36 states and the FCT.

“I have the singular privilege of being made the National Coordinator. Project 774 was designed to promote grassroots politics on development within the concept of Local Government as national development domain. 

“Such that we in project 774 believe,  we want to promote good governance such that every single local should be seen  as an entity to be developed across all the areas of development and we make bold to say that, that is the kind of development principle we saw from most of developing countries.

“You realise from most of the developing countries, cities are given pride of places. The candidates we are promoting in APC are grassroots people, they are people who have that concept of really conceptualising LGA as the place where they will centre development. We have national executives, advisory council , we have so many structures all across the country even up to the polling units.”