Tinubu In Kano, Promises To Be Fair To All Religious Groups If Elected President

Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Bola Tinubu has assured Muslim leaders in the country that he will offer fair and just leadership based on Islamic teachings if elected president.

A statement from the APC Presidential Campaign Council said Tinubu gave the assurance in a town hall meeting with Muslim leaders from the North West geopolitical zone in Kano on Tuesday.

The former Lagos State Governor said, “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,” he stated in a state where religious riots and disharmony is rife.

He however admonished that, “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 said.

He added that, “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.”

Speaking on what he would do about insecurity if he wins, Tinubu said, “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 programs and institutions to solve the real and dangerous challenges Lagos faced,” he said.

He promised that, “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, ” he added.

On the economy, Tinubu said,
“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.

“We all should find it unacceptable that Kano is no longer the manufacturing hub it once was. My policies will do more than revive it. It will expand it beyond what it once was to make it what it should be.

“We will invest in all vital infrastructure projects such as the Mambilla Power Project, the AKK gas pipeline projects.

“We shall revive our inland waterways through the dredging of the River Niger and make sure we cut down on our steel import bill by making the Ajaokuta Steel Company work,” the APC candidate stated.