Tinubu to Muslim Leaders: I’ll Be Fair, Just to All Nigerians

•Vows to overcome banditry if elected president  

•He must get credit for Lagos transformation, Sanwo-Olu insists

Segun James in Lagos and Ibrahim Shuaibu in Kano

Presidential Candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, has assured Muslim leaders in the country that he would offer fair and just leadership to all Nigerians if elected president.

He however, vowed to eliminate bandits abducting and killing travelers on Nigerian roads and other challenges besetting the country upon assuming office.

This is as the Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has insisted that Tinubu was the brain behind the development master plan being implemented by successive administrations in the state and as such, must get the credit for it.

Speaking yesterday at a town hall meeting with Muslim leaders from the North West geopolitical zone in Kano, Tinubu urged the religious leaders to ensure that they preached unity and harmony among their followers rather than division and disunity, saying it was the only way the nation could experience development.

According to him, “Religious leaders like you are agents of harmony and hope, not division and disunity. All well-meaning Nigerians, regardless of political affiliation, must join hands against violence, hunger, ignorance and bigotry.

“We all must live together. No one has the right to try to lord over the other. Allah stands against such injustice. And where Allah stands, all bad things must fall. Mean-spirited politicians – those thinking only of themselves or those who think they mean more than the nation itself – will go to great lengths to deceive or recruit eminent persons to unknowingly preach division and hatred.

“They cannot win with the truth. So, they will try to win with a lie. But a lie never wins in the end. Those they cannot beat with honesty, they seek to beat them with untruth and falsity. They want to turn servants of God into preachers of division and hateful sentiment.”

Tinubu told the Muslim leaders that he had demonstrated a sense of unity and oneness in all his campaigns and would continue to do so, and therefore, pledged to conduct himself in public office on the values and ideals of fairness and justice, adding that he would always speak about facts and truths, policies and programmes.

While reminding the faith leaders of his record as Lagos State governor, Tinubu said: “I promise to be a fair and just leader. This pledge is based on the Islamic teachings on leadership. A leader in a plural society is enjoined to be a leader for all. If elected, I shall govern in harmony with our nation’s democratic Constitution.

“More than that. I shall tackle this nation’s problems with a commitment to solving them. I say this not as a boast. I say it based on my record. As Lagos governor, I assembled perhaps the most diverse team by any state government. That team was based on competence, not tribal this or regional that. It was not based on the attire one wore or the accent one spoke with, but on the quality of one’s ideas and contributions to society.

“If given the chance by Almighty Allah, I will operate in the same spirit of inclusiveness and innovation in order to renew the hope of our people. My highest priorities shall be the protection of our land and prosperity of its people.”

Discussing his plans for the economy, he also promised to make security work and ensure the economy becomes one of widely shared prosperity and agriculture, the three pillars of his government.

His words: “Regarding security, my policy is not an artificial created to sound good for this campaign. My security policy is based on dedicated study and long conversations with experts in this field. This is the same approach I used to tackle the bad security situation that faced me when I became governor of Lagos. I created programmes and institutions to solve the real and dangerous challenges Lagos faced.

“We shall increase security personnel and better equip them. Advanced air and ground surveillance technology will identify, track and attack the criminals until they are utterly defeated. As we fight terror and crime, we shall also attack poverty, hunger and the despair they cause.

“My plan is to turn this economy into a more robust and broad  economy, where those who want work can find a good job. We will revive the manufacturing and textile sectors in Kano and elsewhere by reforming tax and import policies to  create jobs for our people. These policies will also produce the goods and services that improve the daily lives of the average person.

“Regarding agriculture, we will increase food security through enhanced productivity and improved farm incomes. Farming will be adequately returned to its prominent position. To strengthen our social fabric and guarantee the future, massive investment in education will ensure that we nourish and guide our youth toward better lives,” he said.

Earlier, the Jigawa State Governor, Muhammadu Badaru Abubakar, refuted the insinuations that Tinubu would be a “Southern President” if he won the election, saying, “Bola Tinubu’s activities clearly shows he is not a betrayer. Tinubu’s political pedigree clearly vindicates him as not an ethnic and religious bigot.”

He added that everything Tinubu was doing on his presidential campaign was done actively with the full participation of himself, the Kano State Governor, Abdulahi Ganduje and their Kaduna. State counterpart, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu.

One of the Islamic clerics, Sheikh Qaribullah Nasiru Kabara, represented by Yahya Imam, while speaking, told Tinubu that they were supporting him because he was a Muslim.

He said Islamic clerics were not supporting Tinubu for money but by being a Muslim and breaking the jinx of Muslim-Christian ticket.

Meanwhile, Sanwo-Olu has insisted that a fact that could not be denied by anyone who worked closely with Tinubu from 1999 to 2007, was that he designed the development master plan of the state.

Speaking as a special guest on ‘Your View,’ a programme on Television Continental (TVC), where he spoke about his government’s achievements, his re-election, family values and relationship with the APC presidential candidate, Sanwo-Olu said Tinubu could not be deprived of the credit for the reforms that transformed Lagos to one of the biggest economies in Africa.

His words: “With all sense of humility, I joined the Tinubu government over 20 years ago. I was General Manager in my bank before I joined Tinubu in November 2002. From the very first day of my appointment, I was in Tinubu’s cabinet and I saw things first hand.

“I am a living witness to the development vision put forward by Tinubu. It’s not something we should be blabbing about; it’s a fact we all know. Under the leadership of Tinubu, we set up documents called LASEEDS and SEEDS, which are economic development blueprints for Lagos.

“We also had what we called a 10-point agenda, which laid the foundation for revenue generation drive, transportation reform and public infrastructure renewal.

“LASEEDS and SEEDS documents were working blueprint for transformation in Lagos. We set up the Ehingbeti Economic Summit to run year on year, where we collate inputs from the private sector and put them in flesh of public documents and generate a working paper we could implement.

“I was the Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget, so I was part of those that developed the documents. Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA), for example, did not just come out of the space; Tinubu set up LAMATA with the World Bank in 2002. I was part of the first set of personnel that worked in LAMATA, which is one of the best transportation agencies in the world.

“That’s how the blueprint was developed and we had a 20-year development plan for it, which former Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola improved on. He expunged some items and replaced them based on the realities of the period.

“Former Governor Akinwunmi Ambode did similar thing. Our government is doing same, because there is continuity. We’re able to see the challenges of previous governments and we decided on those things we can take quickly. Tinubu deserves the credit because he is the one that was able to bake the first retinue of very intelligent people that worked with him to develop implementable blueprint.”