Foreign agenda must not be allowed to shape narrative for 2023 polls – Faleke

A member representing Ikeja Federal Constituency of Lagos State in the National Assembly, Hon. James Faleke, has said the destabilising agenda allegedly sponsored by domestic nihilists and foreign enemies of Nigeria must not be allowed to shape the narrative of the 2023 presidential election.

Faleke, who is a close political ally of the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, stated this while delivering a keynote address at the unveiling of “Asiwaju legacies” and inauguration of states’ steering committee of the Tinubu Support Group (TSG) Saturday in Abuja.

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Tinubu, a former governor of Lagos State, is aspiring to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari at the expiration of his tenure in 2023.

The event is coming two weeks after the APC power broker spent over three months in London, the United Kingdom, where he was said to have undergone surgery.

Faleke said the APC must prepare grounds for an orderly transition of power to another APC government in 2023 by fielding Tinubu as a presidential candidate.

“The destabilising agenda, sponsored by domestic nihilists and foreign enemies of Nigeria, must not be allowed to shape the narrative of the 2023 elections.

“Our party and government must snap victory from the jaws of these challenges.

“It is not the time to experiment with inexperienced experts. It is not the season for those who can talk but have no history of walking their talk.

“To secure the votes of the majority in 2023, we must present a candidate that knows where the shoe pinches the average Nigerian, not just because he has been but because, as the governor of the most difficult, most complex state in Nigeria, he put smiles on the faces of the poor by convincing the rich to join the government to chase poverty from the streets.

“That man is Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Asiwaju of Lagos, Lagos State.

“Our party is therefore lucky that it does not need to go on a wild goose chase for the man to fly our party’s flag in these challenging times; a time when the Presidency of the Federal Republic of Nigeria must go to the person who can continue to end banditry, to crush kidnappers and engage separatists so that our people can live in peace and prosperity.

“We have discovered a man who is ready to sacrifice all he has for his fatherland.

“It is now clear that the meeting of minds between him and President Buhari is grounded in their circumstances.

“Just like President Buhari left power in august 1985 but continued to mark the higher standards of the progressive military in government, the image and relevance of our man of the moment soared in public consciousness despite his unofficial status,” Faleke said.

In his speech, the Director-General of the Tinubu Support Group (TSG), Arc. Umar Ibrahim Mohammed, asked the APC National Leader to formally declare his intention to run for the presidency, saying the support groups were solidly behind him.