Tells ‘northern candidate’: Show us your track record
Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna State has declared that the opposition has upgraded its campaign from Facebook and Twitter to Artificial Intelligence AI, warning supporters of his ruling All Progressives Congress APC to be wary of the development.
He spoke on Saturday in Kaduna at the flag-off of the APC presidential campaign.
“The opposition have now upgraded their campaign from Facebook and Twitter to AI. So, I want to call the attention of our supporters to prepare, be watchful and be vigilant,” the governor said.
In apparent reference to former vice w Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress ADC, Sani challenged the “northern candidate” to show his track record.
“When someone came to us and said we should vote for him simply because he is a Northerner, we asked him, ‘Can you show us your track record?’ Until this moment, the so-called Northern candidate has not shown us his track record, Mr President. No track record, and we keep asking,” he said.
He said he had told Vice President Kashmir Shettima at the airport that history would remember him. “I pointed out to him that, as Vice President under you, more than 1,000 kilometres of roads have already been constructed in the northern part of Nigeria,” Sani said.
Turning to the “northern candidate” again, he asked: “Can you show us 200 kilometres of road that you were able to help the people of the North East with while you were Vice President? Till this moment, we have not seen one.”
The governor said the people of Kaduna and the North were ready to repay the president at the polls. “That is why today we are affirming our resolve as a people to massively come out in January 2027 to vote for continuity. We are voting for a promise keeper to continue with the good work he is already doing in Kaduna State and in general,” he said.
Speaking on behalf of the governors present, particularly those from the North, he added: “I want to thank you, Mr President, and assure you that the people of Northern Nigeria will repay you with their votes. You have seen, Mr President, the people coming from the airport to the stadium. Some people will come out on January 16 to vote for you.”
Sani recalled that Tinubu visited Birnin Gwari Local Government Area as a candidate on December 22, 2022, when it was “the epicentre of insecurity in the whole of the North-West”, and rejected advice not to go. The journey from Kaduna took four hours, with 27 armoured vehicles in the convoy.
“Mr President, today I can assure you that the two promises you made have been fulfilled,” he said.
He said the Kaduna-Birnin Gwari road, “a 123km road that had been abandoned for over 40 years”, is being reconstructed, with N117bn released to the contractor.
“Today, you can travel to Birnin Gwari with your eyes closed without a single police escort, Mr President. That is progress, Mr President,” he said.
On the Abuja-Kaduna-Kano Expressway, the governor said the president had assured him he would pay the N740bn for its reconstruction. “As we are speaking, Mr President, 95 per cent of the work has been completed,” he said.
He added that more than 90 per cent of Kaduna residents who came to the venue through the Abuja route “have not experienced a single problem of kidnapping”.
Sani also thanked the president for choosing Kaduna as the pilot state for the metropolitan red line project. He said $865m had been approved, and that the contractor, Mota-Engil, told him last week it had mobilised $300m for the corridor of about 50km.
On agriculture, he said: “No leader in the history of Nigeria has supported agricultural transformation as substantially as you have done, Mr President, and that is a record.”
The Director General of the APC Presidential Campaign Council PCC, Senator Abdul’aziz Yari, said the campaign would be built on the government’s record.
“We Nigerians, at the head of this campaign, are going to campaign with our records. Our records are there. The infrastructure is there. What you did in health, education and human capital development is there,” he said.
Yari said the party had been engaging traditional rulers, ulama and imams on the importance of the president’s return in 2027.
“Northern Nigeria is 101 per cent for you, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, by God’s grace. And the promise we have made, you are going to see it on January 16, 2027,” Yari said.
