2023: Women group vows to deliver 2 million votes to Atiku

A group of women under the aegis of Diamond Ladies in Politics has assured that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, will fulfil his pledge to create inclusivity in governance and has, therefore, vowed to mobilise at least, two million votes to enable him to win the 2023 election.

Speaking during the public declaration for the former vice president and induction ceremony of the group in Abuja on Saturday night, its convener, Princess Maimunat Wada, who made the declaration, also lamented what she regarded as the appalling level of insecurity and the severe hardship being experienced by Nigerians under the All Progressives Congress (APC) administration.

She contended that Atiku has the wherewithal to address the challenges besetting the country if he emerges victorious at the poll.

Princess Wada noted: “With Atiku Abubakar on the saddle of leadership of the country, there would be inclusiveness of Nigerians irrespective of their tribal and religious affiliations. Atiku’s choice of his running mate, His Excellency Dr Ifeanyi Okowa, his array of business partners, investments spread across the country and even the ethnic backgrounds of his spouses are clear testimony that he would be a true Nigerian president.

“As of today, His Excellency Atiku Abubakar remains the only candidate that has released a clear and unambiguous roadmap to the economic recovery of the country. This simply means he is the most prepared presidential candidate in the country.

“With His Excellency Atiku Abubakar, together we shall build a nation where a northerner will see a southerner as his or her own brother and sister, where religion and ethnicity will not be a dividing tool nor barrier but a powerful tool for togetherness. With Atiku Abubakar all these are possible.

“Today, we are declaring our support for Atiku Abubakar to become the next President of this country. We are going to mobilize, and encourage not less than two million Nigerians who are real voters to vote for him because he would definitely tackle poverty, insecurity, unemployment and the infrastructural decay in the country.”

Also speaking at the ceremony, a stalwart PDP and former Senator, Dino Melaye, described the party’s presidential candidate as a sane, fitter and the most experienced of all the candidates jostling for the exalted seat of the presidency.

He argued that there is no basis for comparing Atiku with the presidential candidate of the ruling All progressive congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, even though both remain the frontrunners for the plum job.

He also dismissed suggestions that the presidential candidates of the Labour party (LP) and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) Peter Obi and Rabiu Kwankwaso, respectively, will spring surprises at the presidential poll.

Melaye said: “I am happy that everybody here is singing one song and that is Atiku for President. Many are already voting on social media but INEC has no voting centre on social media.

“Atiku supporters are real, they are original. You can see them and they have PVCs. We have two very important people contesting this election. Atiku Abubakar, the Wazirin Adamawa and Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the APC.

“Unfortunately both of them are very wealthy but there is a difference.”

He added that Atiku became a billionaire through visible enterprise spanning agriculture, education, oil and gas, media, manufacturing and banking.

Melaye added: “Atiku Abubakar has met the constitutional requirements of the federal government that anyone who wants to contest for the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria must be physically and mentally fit. I cannot say the same about the other person.

“At 75 what is new that Atiku would be looking for other than to set the pedestal for the upcoming generation to have a life they can call their own? So, this competent Nigerian that is highly mobile and administratively sagacious is coming to change the narrative.”

According to the former Senator who represented Kogi West, Atiku brought Obi to the national light when he chose him as his running mate in 2019.

He argued: “Obi is a fantastic Nigerian but he was not known nationally until Atiku identified him. Atiku is a talent hunter. Everyone who was a reformer in this country between 1999 and to date was a discovery of Atiku.

“Atiku discovered Obi before keyboard warriors discovered Obi. Unfortunately, elections are not going to take place on social media. It is going to take place at the polling units. And those that would vote are the people here. So it is now operation votes must count.

“Out of all the presidential candidates, he is the only one with Presidential campaign experience. All of them are running for the office of the president for the first time. From Kwankwaso, to Obi to Tinubu and others. Atiku has led this route before. He understands it and he will emerge victorious by the Grace of God.”

In her address at the occasion, the daughter of the PDP presidential candidate, Hajia Mariam, affirmed that his father will reposition the country if voted into power in the 2023 poll.

“His excellency Atiku Abubakar is all about the youths. So, all the women and youths must get involved in nation-building and most especially get involved in the forthcoming election. Atiku would take the country back to where it is supposed to be,” she stated.

In his keynote address, United States of America-based Professor of Medicine, Prof. Emeka Umerah, enjoined aggrieved stalwarts of the PDP to put their differences aside and work in concert to ensure the defeat of the APC at the presidential poll.

He said: “It is now audible to the deaf and visible to the blind, the growing spate of insecurity in Nigeria. Our security challenges have now grown beyond the hitherto known activities of dissident Boko Haram terrorists. It is now, as a matter of fact, hydra-headed- banditry, kidnapping, farmer-herder clashes, livestock rustling, separatist agitations, and religious-related killings among others.

“These have threatened the country’s farming belt and now worsening the food insecurity problem that we have been plagued with since especially the past six years.”

He said in Atiku, that the PDP has put its best foot forward for the 2023 presidential election, noting: “What is left is for the leaders of the Party to put its house in order and work in unity of mind and purpose to achieve the seemingly herculean task before it- reclaiming the mandate and mantle of leadership from the ruling APC through the ballot.

“Good enough the electoral system which has tremendously improved is already shaping the events of things to come with the outcome of the recent Osun State Governorship election in which the PDP trounced an incumbent ruling party’s governor.

“Atiku and the PDP leaders must continue with their fence-mending mission they know how to do best and seek to unify every member of the Party and even expand their coasts to woo more supporters and the electorates to their side.

“Hence the antecedents of Atiku are very well known, his campaign team must immediately get to work to market the product in a convincing manner to the already beleaguered Nigerian electorates.”

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