By Damilola Aina
Persons with Disabilities, who are members of the ruling All Progressives Congress, on Friday, urged Nigerians not to be swayed by political parties using divisive smokescreen and religious fault lines to campaign for the 2023 general election.
This was disclosed in a statement issued by the APC PWDs National Leader, Tolu Bankole, after their monthly media parley in Abuja on Friday.
Bankole stated that the nation must not miss the opportunity to vote for time-tested candidates of the APC in the 2023 polls, adding that it was Nigeria’s safest option.
The statement partly read, “This is why I think all patriotic citizens of Nigeria must look beyond those using the smokescreen of divisive campaigns and religious fault lines by voting for Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and Senator Kashim Shettima of the APC for the presidency in the next year’s election.
“APC is the only party with the best presidential offer. The combination of Tinubu and Shettima meets the twin central nerve of transformational leadership which are competence and character. I mentioned competence because both are experienced private sector technocrats merged with astute public service legacies as sterling governors and distinguished senators of Lagos and Borno states respectively.
“They have the character because Nigeria is at a crossroads to sustain the gains of the ongoing monumental infrastructural revolution and urgently rally the human and non-human resources to tame emerging challenges confronting the country.
“The duo of Tinubu and Shettima fit the mole from their track records of innovative approaches to developmental and security issues in the public domain.
“The nation must not gamble with her choice of leadership at this critical stage in history” he stated.
This is even as the PWDs leader called on all ministers and heads of government agencies to give their stewardship in appreciation of what the administration of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), has done in the last seven years across all sectors.
According to him, the election is critical for the stability and continuity of Nigeria as a nation.
Bankole maintained that keeping silent at this critical moment should be seen as deliberate sabotage and disloyalty to a leader who steadied the country through a global pandemic, one of the most trying moments in human history.
He, therefore, appealed to all persons with disabilities across the country, as a matter of urgency and national duty, to collect their Personal Voters Cards and get ready to cast their votes for APC at all levels in the forthcoming 2023 general elections.