- Insists Nigeria needs vibrant leadership to navigate pressing challenges
BY SEGUN ADEBAYO – The Allied Peoples Movement (APM) presidential campaign council says given the enormous challenges that Nigeria is grappling nwith currently, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is certainly not the right man for the executive office because he does not have the required stamina to lead the country going forward.
Consequently, the Makinde-Daura Presidential Campaign Organisation (MDPCO) is demanding that President Tinubu drop his re-election bid, asserting that the nation urgently needs a leader with the physical stamina to navigate its pressing challenges.
In a statement released in Abuja on Sunday, Director of Strategic Communications of the MDPCO, Richard Ihediwa, stated that the President could not withstand the rigours of campaigning and had to be flown to Mecca for prayers after delivering a “speech at the sparsely attended flag-off of his re-election campaign in Kaduna last week.”
Sharply criticizing the President’s frequent international travel, the statement highlighted Tinubu’s recent departure for prayers in Saudi Arabia, which comes just weeks after his return from a vacation in France, alleging further that the President is struggling to withstand the rigours of the national campaign trail being obviously unfit physically.
Also claiming President Tinubu required medical or spiritual evacuation to Mecca immediately after delivering his latest public address, the MDPCO statement read thus: “President Tinubu does not have the stamina to continue in office. It’s a natural tendency. All of us wish and pray to grow old, but we cannot continue to insist on holding office even when we no longer have the capacity, capability and stamina to effectively perform in the office.
“So, President Tinubu should quit and allow a younger generation to take over. The Presidency is a very demanding office that requires a lot of stamina. Nigeria has been racing backwards in the last three and a half years because we have a president who is not able to lead from the front, who cannot physically oversee governance.
“President Tinubu at his age is not attuned to aspirations of the contemporary world. He cannot invest in current technologies because these things would be confusing to him. So, President Tinubu should take the back seat and allow younger hands, like our presidential candidate, Seyi Makinde, to take over for the next four years to Reset Nigeria with an all-inclusive government of national unity.”
Promoting the MDPCO ticket, Ihediwa said Makinde possessed the experience, preparedness and energy required to work round the clock and deliver on promises, saying: “Nigeria needs a president who can travel to every part of the country, spend quality time with citizens and remain actively engaged in governance, even into the early hours of the morning.
“This explains the enthusiastic reception accorded Makinde, his running mate, Lawal Daura, and the entire campaign train by Nigerians across the North-West, North-Central, North-East, South-South, South-West and South-East geopolitical zones.
“I want to use this opportunity to urge Nigerians to sustain the momentum, obtain their Permanent Voter Cards and vote out President Tinubu if he fails to heed our counsel and withdraw from the 2027 presidential race.”
The APM also took a swipe at the Federal Government’s plan to make N50,000 monthly payment to vulnerable households under the National Emergency Relief and Stabilisation Intervention, describing it as a failed attempt to procure Nigerians.
Warning that such emergency elections gimmicks cannot sway the people from their determination to vote Tinubu out of office in January 2027, the statement said: “Such panic-driven financial measures cannot save President Tinubu and the APC from defeat. You can see that the APC was defeated in the Osun State governorship election despite the amount of money that they deployed.”
