Trump’s threat: Sanwo-Olu urges Nigerians to be proud , defend the govt
Lagos State Governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu on Tuesday urged Nigerians to defend the country, noting “Let us go out there and be proud and defend this government.”
Sanwo-Olu stated this during the flag off of e-registration hands-on device/application Train-the-Trainer of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, for the South West zone at the State House, Marina, Lagos.
Sanwo-Olu, who was represented by his Deputy, Dr Obafemi Hamzat stated that the Dangote 650,000 barrel per day of refining capacity must be protected, noting the billions of dollars expended is not a joke.
Sanwo-Olu’s charge was coming at a time US President Donald Trump has threatened to launch military incursion into the country over allegation of genocide against the Christians by terrorists.
Sanwo-Olu said, “We all said we should sign PIB in this country. What are they doing now? So those refineries in San Francisco that are now empty because we are refining here. But it’s not our fight. Should we not produce jobs for our people? The man took 3,000 Nigerians to India to train for a year, the man has built 35,000 flats in Ibeju-Lekki to house his employees, that place sits on a land bigger than the whole of Victoria Island. Is it not in Nigeria? We must protect it, it’s a Nigerian expenditure.”
Continuing he noted, “If somebody spent 20 billion US dollars, is it a joke? The budget of federal government of Nigeria, all the 36 states and FCT is 62 billion dollars. The man spent 20 billion dollars, that is one-third of the full-time expenditure of federal government, state government. You think it’s a joke?” He queried.
“And our President is taking those right decisions. People that don’t understand will criticize him but let us go out there and be proud and defend this government. They are doing the right things. As we do it, God continue to be with us.l,” Sanwo-Olu prayed.
He cited example of the build-up to the 2023 presidential elections, “All the candidates during the elections said, they will remove fuel subsidy, in fact, Peter Obi said it’s a fraud. But when it was implemented, they all ran away because they thought it was easy.”
He added, “Surgeries are never easy. Somebody break a leg and do surgery, it’s going to be painful. So the President has done the surgery, it’s healing now and we are seeing results because he knows and remains focused.”
He alluded to an opposition party member who said, APC is manipulating prices in the market. “Why did he not manipulate prices when he was there as a Governor in his state? It’s sickening to say something like that.
“How do you manipulate things that people take home, they went to the market to buy. So the effect of that re-engineering is showing. And if we keep at it, the effects will still be a lot because banks are now calling manufacturers, do you need dollars? Before, you have to go and beg, you have to lobby to get that.
Speaking on the e-registration, the Governor stated, “I know, we all know, whatever you can’t measure, you can’t manage and that has been the problem for our country. We are buying fertilizer and we are distributing it. How do we measure success?
“So when Mr President said we would do Lagos-Sokoto Super-Highway, it is strategic. On that axis, there are 64 farm settlements. How do you move those goods?
“When our forefathers, when they did Agric well, we were using farmer sticks. So they knew that if I put fertilizer, I can say, okay, this is what I expect. I know the size of the plant.
“But as a nation, when we buy fertilizer, for what size of land? So that’s why when the President launched the Agric Settlement, I was very impressed because whatever you can’t measure, you cannot manage it.
“So as a political party, we must measure our members. It’s the only way to manage it. So we must take risks, we must be able to know who are the members of our party. It’s not just when election is coming up, we’re running efforts all over the place. We must know so that we can even synchronize.
“We can hear from the members during governance. What is happening in your area? How are we doing? Are we meeting the expectations of our people?
“So those of us that have this responsibility, It’s a great job that you have. I pray that you do it well but we must do it well because it is to allow us to be able to manage everything that we have. For this training we should percolate it down,” the Governor charged members.
The APC National chairman, Prof Neltawe Yilwatda who was represented by the Secretary, Ajibola Basiru said, “A lot of people follow us to rallies, they follow us to campaign they follow us to collect the Parliamentary Programmes but in the real sense, they are not members of our political party because their names are not on the register. And the various guidelines of our party signify that for you to even aspire to an office, you must be nominated by members of the political party.”
He cited an example, “Some politicians in one state in South West who have recently conducted primaries submitted a donation form to the National Secretariat and more than 50 percent of their latest nominees, their names could not be found on the register of members. So can somebody who is not a member of the party nominate somebody to fly the flag of the party?
“As far as I am concerned, the person is not, he is a personal non-grata. So for everybody that wants to say he is a member of APC, we must make this membership in the session very important. And that is why after this, which is the last in the series of the trainer, our IT infrastructure, both hardware and software is already in place. We place emphasis on training and that is why we will not just send people to come and train. We take it a point of importance to send high-powered delegation of the National Working Committee to be at all the centres for the training. And we are also going to be at the training at the state level to ensure that we take this very seriously.”
He added, “Politics is engineering and science and engineering is driven by nothing but very valuable empirical data. So we are very serious and committed to this and we thank all the participants from all the states for coming here. So please, we want to implore you, listen carefully and ask questions so that you will be able to understand the rudiment of this.”
Speaking on the mass defection to the ruling party, Yilwatda stated, “They say we want to turn Nigeria into a one-party state. No! We are only doing our own job as a political party. There are 20 registered political parties in Nigeria, we challenge them, let them do what our leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is doing, what our government is doing and what the National Working Committee are doing by making sure that we go out there, we arrange, mobilize, organize, sensitize, and conscientize members every day, every time, 24-7.
He further stated, “We cannot do work of opposition for them, we cannot take your own mouth to go and give to the cleaner when you want to talk.
“By the grace of God, by the next two weeks, more governors of the North-East are going to join us. Today, your party, my party, has superiority in the two houses of the National Assembly and they have superiority of people who are doing politics in Nigeria.
“They thought Nigeria would go backward but today, food prices are going down. They thought the dollar would go to 2,000. Now, if you keep your dollars at home, in the next one hour, you are on your own. Foreign Direct Investment is coming in, we must continue to mobilize and educate.”
In his welcome address, the chairman of Lagos State APC, Pastor Cornelius Ojelabi said, “With this e-registration exercise, our party is delivering, teaching other contractions that they call political parties how to run a true, people-friendly political party.
“For any political party to continue to be relevant in this democratic world, it must continually inspire technology and modernize its operations. As our party is currently doing. Accurate record-keeping and data manipulation are key components of contemporary party administrations. Political parties must therefore move at the pace of its members.
“This programme is also an avenue to show everyone that we are a very organized party who believe in doing things frankly and meeting the needs of our people.”
Deputy National Organizing Secretary, Chidi Duru said the exercise is pivot to the next year’s elections, we believe that you go to your respective state and now begin to train those who will take it to the grassroots.”
