Soni Daniel, Abuja

With just five days to the 2023 presidential and National Assembly elections, the National Union of Blacksmith and Tinker Workers of Nigeria (NUBTWN) has endorsed the candidacy of Senators Bola Tinubu, and Kashim Shettima, for the Feb. 25 Presidential election.
The National Secretary of the union, Alhaji Ishaku Kontagorah, announced the endorsement on behalf of other members at a forum in Abuja on Monday.

The forum attended by blacksmiths across the 19 northern was organized by project 774, a national support group for Tinubu’s presidency

Kontagorah said the four million member-strong association, which specializes in the production of cutlasses, planting machines, holes, harrowing tools, fertilizer application machines and among other simple implements, decided to throw its weight behind Tinubu/Shetima because their bid represents the best opportunity of development for Nigerians.

He said given the current development and support by the current government, the union was endorsing the candidacy of Tinubu and Shettima for the presidential election.

Kontagorah said the endorsement wound ensure the APC government continue the good work started by President Muhammadu Buhari.

He said members of the union, who are blacksmiths and tinkers across the nation were satisfied with the antecedent of Tinubu and his agenda for Nigeria especially his plan for a bottom-up approach of development.

The National Coordinator of Project 774, Sen.Sabi Abdullahi, said project 774 was designed to mobilise grassroots support Tinubu and Shettima so as to positively affect the local people.

Abdullahi, expressed gratitude to members of the union for making the endorsement possible.

Abdullahi said, “We believe that Project 774 should be local, it should be bottom-up and our hope is to make sure we get to those who are affected with whatever we do in our government.”

He said, he had course to engage with the blacksmiths and tinkers’ union through his empowerment scheme as a representative of Niger-North in the Senate

Abdullahi said Nigeria and most part of the north were reputed for agriculture, adding that the buck of the rural populace, who engage in agriculture cannot do so without the tools produced by the blacksmiths.

“There is no village or market that you go to, that you not will see the blacksmith or the Thinkers.

” And so this group of people represent a part of our agriculture heritage and hence I did the empowerment.

“This informed their desire to stand with our presidential candidate Sen.Tinubu who has shown tremendous interest in the development of this nation, and he does that via bottom top development process.”

He said Tinubu has demonstrated his bottom-up development approach with what he has done in Lagos state, adding that his running mate Shettima has also shown knack to bring development from the bottom up approach.

Abdullahi said the group coming to endorse the candidature of Tinubu was significant because they were in every single village and town across Nigeria.

“This group we have here that are also in all the northern Nigeria is a force that we cannot ignore on any way,

“So I thank you all from the 19 northern state for coming, if Nigeria is to succeed we cannot underrate your role in agriculture.

“This group has the skill to contribute and when they have been upgraded, as we have done in the empowerment scheme I did, they have a lot to contribute in developing new tools and supporting farmers’ production capacity with the tools,” Senator Abdullahi said.