‘Nigeria’s Next President ‘ll Battle Monumental Challenges’
Fidelis David in Akure
A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ondo State and Media Director for the APC Presidential Council for Canada, Dr. Abiola Oshodi, yesterday disclosed that whosoever wins the 2023 presidential election would be confronted with monumental challenges and opportunities within and outside the country that will test the mettle of such a president.
Oshodi, in a statement made available to journalists in Akure, said that Nigeria needed a competent and visionary person as a president to take it to a new level come 2023, counseling Nigerians on the need to keep themselves abreast of political undercurrents and vote wisely.
The Canada based psychiatrist and the convener of the Oshodi for Tinubu /Shettima Media Group, said: “Whosoever wins the presidential election in 2023 will be confronted with monumental challenges and opportunities within and outside the country that will test the mettle of such a president.
“Nigeria is at a delicate stage of its developmental process and needs a president with a hand on experience, and Senator Tinubu who has governed Lagos, the most commercial of Nigeria 36 states deserves to be given an opportunity to pilot Nigeria affairs from May 29, 2023,” he said.
Tinubu, according to Oshodi, adroitly managed Lagos that is the smallest state in the country but with the highest urban population, accounting, according to a Lagos official document for the 26.7 per cent of Nigeria’s total GDP and more than 50 per cent of non-oil GDP, controls 80 per cent of the foreign trade flow and with an estimated population of 24 million-larger than many other economies in the neighbouring West African countries.
“Tinubu laid the foundation for the current Lagos that today accounts for the chunk of capital importation into Nigeria.”
Oshodi described Tinubu as a man with innovative thinking who touched every facet of Lagos as a governor from 1999-2007, an attribute needed by Nigeria at this stage of its development for the desired transformation.
“He created the Ministry of Environment to tackle the issue of flooding head on, introduced the one-day governor programme that brought young boys and girls into the limelight and reformed the health sector accompanied with the distribution of free eye glasses.
“He created a Housing Ministry to redress the acute shortage of housing in Lagos, with a mandate to construct affordable houses and introduced the Independent Power Project, and the Bus Rapid Transportation – BRT, with Lagos State Transport Management Authority (LASTMA) to develop a culture of regulation, control management of traffic operations and to ensure hitch free traffic on Lagos roads.
“Senator Tinubu also created 37 more local councils in order to bring government more to the people and brought the Lekki corridor into limelight, the Lekki corridor that that had become a beehive of economic activities with the Dangote Refinery and Petrochemicals, the 650,000 barrels per day integrated refinery, the largest single train refinery in the world;/ the Dangote Fertiliser, a 2.5 billion dollar investment and the Lekki Sea Port Nigeria’s largest multipurpose Port in Nigeria among the and the companies located today in the Lekki Free Zone,” he stated.
Oshodi said that if Senator Tinubu is voted as the next president, he would replicate all these achievements and even accomplish more at the national level and give the country the leadership that would inspire it to greater glory with new thinking, innovative ideas and vision.
