Senator Abdullahi Adamu, the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), said on Thursday that the party’s victory in the presidential election on February 25 shows that Nigerians trust the APC to stay in power beyond 2023.
He also said that the President-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, was the clear choice of the people because he had met and even gone beyond the constitutional requirements by getting more than 25% of the vote in 33 states of the federation.
Senator Adamu praised President Muhammadu Buhari in a speech that sounded like a victory speech. He also praised the voters for choosing Tinubu and said it was a choice they could live with.
“As the national chairman of APC, our victory is a humbling but proud experience for me. The people have spoken loud and clear. Their judgment was informed and supreme. The choice they made is the choice they can live with. We salute them. We salute their free and fair decision.
“We accept the victory of our presidential candidate and the party with humility and gratitude to the Almighty God and the entire people of this great nation. We of the National Executive Committee and the National Working Committee of our great party join millions of our compatriots in congratulating the president-elect and, indeed, all our members in celebrating the resounding victory of our party at the polls.
“We congratulate President Muhammadu Buhari for the peaceful conduct of the elections. He duly delivered on his promise to provide the enabling level playing field for all the political parties and their candidates. He stood for freedom of choice and action. His legacy of abiding by the rule of law shall be the hallmark of our party’s leadership in our dear country. He has cemented his place in our national history. Thank you, Mr. President, for standing by the party and especially its presidential candidate”.
In the speech, which was called “Triumph of Democracy,” Adamu also praised the members of the party and its leaders for their work, even though they had to deal with sabotage from both inside and outside the party.
He was unequivocal that the victory did not come from just one person. He said the security agencies, INEC officials, NYSC, and many other Nigerians played essential roles.
“We have all run the good race. The victory has gone to one man, but the race was not run by him alone. He won because we stood by him. He won because we, as members of the party, were committed to his victory and the victory of our party at all levels in the general elections. He won because the electorate trust him and believe he has the capacity to heal the nation’s wounds and set it along the path of unity and prosperity. The people have trusted their will and welfare to the able hands of the president-elect and the vice-president-elect.
“We have been through a grueling experience in the hands of the doomsayers. We have pulled through in one piece and demonstrated once more that, fortified by our patriotism and our duty to our nation, we will always give the lie to the doomsayers.
“The victory does not belong to the president-elect and his political party alone. It also belongs to that poor woman who, against all odds and the current financial problems, still sacrificed her time and her little financial resource to go to her polling unit to cast her vote because she wants to have a say in who governs her and her country.
“The victory belongs to the security agencies who put their lives on the line and ensured the peaceful conduct of the election at all levels. It belongs to all Nigerians who collectively showed a determination to birth a new national leadership. It belongs especially to the chairman and the members of INEC.
“They laboured under a dark cloud of sabotage. INEC offices were torched in several states; its personnel were similarly attacked, but Professor Mahmood Yakubu, the man who has done more than anyone else in that difficult office, refused to be intimidated and be deflected from doing his duty to his country and his compatriots. Committed as he and the members of the commission were to free, fair, transparent, and credible elections, they found sustenance in the courage to serve the nation and its people and help the people institute a government of their choice. Our nation must remain grateful to them.
“We thank the mass media for their role in the conduct of the elections. They too ran the good race and must share in the victory.”
While praising the efforts of the other candidates, he said that the walkouts were childish and meant to cast doubt on the results of the election.
“I would be remiss if I fail to condemn in the strongest possible terms the shameful conduct of the leadership of the PDP and the Labour Party in their unwarranted attempts to sabotage the elections and throw the country into chaos and avoidable crisis. It is a pity that they take their loss so badly. They ought to be good sportsmen and women in the political arena.
“Their protest walkout from the collation centre was childish but clearly a calculated attempt to rubbish the elections and impugn the integrity of the electoral umpire. Their call for the cancellation of the elections over their unproven allegations of electoral fraud must be the height of diabolical desperation. All patriotic citizens of this country who value peace and unity of purpose must rise with one voice to condemn these elements who want to parade themselves in the public space as the guardians of our electoral system”.
At the briefing, several members of the APC National Working Committee (NWC) were in attendance.
