By Ahmad Muhammad, Kano
The All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has assured Muslim leaders in the country that he will offer fair and just leadership to all Nigerians if elected president.
Tinubu gave the assurance in a town hall meeting with Muslim leaders from the northwest geopolitical zone in Kano, yesterday.
He urged the religious leaders to ensure they preach unity and harmony among their followers, rather than division and disunity, saying that is the only way the nation could experience development.
“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.
“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 with untruth and falsity. They want to turn servants of God into preachers of division and hateful sentiment,” Tinubu said.
The presidential candidate further told the Muslim leaders that he had demonstrated a sense of unity and oneness in all his campaigns and would continue to do so.
He pledged to conduct himself in public office on the values and ideals of fairness and justice, adding that he would always speak about facts and truths, policies and programmes.
On expectations from him, if elected, he reminded the faith leaders of his record as Lagos State governor.
Tinubu said: “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.”
Tinubu added: “Regarding security, my policy is not 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 programmes and institutions to solve the real and dangerous challenges Lagos faced.”
Source: The Guardian
