Kwankwaso says Tinubu government does not deserve a second term
- Kwankwaso told a Jos gathering on Friday that insecurity and poverty have gone unaddressed under Tinubu.
- He spoke for Peter Obi, who was absent and said to be held in Enugu.
- Kwankwaso urged Plateau voters to back the NDC ticket and guard their votes.
Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) vice-presidential candidate, has said President Bola Tinubu's government should not get another term because it has not stopped killings or eased hardship.
He spoke in Jos on Friday at a reception and town hall meeting the Middle Belt Youth Council organised for the Obi/Kwankwaso ticket. The Big Tent, the Obidient Movement, the Kwankwasiyya Movement and NDC leaders backed the event.
Peter Obi, the party's presidential candidate, was billed to chair the meeting but did not attend. Kwankwaso said Obi called him that morning to say he was stuck in Enugu for reasons outside his control, and that a new date would be fixed for a proper address to supporters.
Kwankwaso passed on Obi's message that the pair remain fully with the people of Plateau. The NDC's governorship candidate in the state, Akuns Jonathan Sunday, was among party figures at the event.
Security, jobs and schools
Drawing on his time as Kano governor and as Minister of Defence, Kwankwaso named illiteracy, poverty and lack of work as the country's heaviest burdens. He said factories that once employed Nigerians, Plateau included, have closed and little is being done about it.
He said Nigerians are killed in bandit attacks, Boko Haram violence and communal clashes in numbers that should shock any leader, and that each victim is a human being regardless of faith, ethnic group or region.
Protecting lives and property is a duty the constitution places on government, he said. Any administration that fails at it cannot be called responsible, and should not be returned to power.
Kwankwaso described the Obi/Kwankwaso pairing as balanced, saying it draws support from Plateau, the North, the South and the country as a whole. If elected, he said, the ticket would take on insecurity, poverty and illiteracy while putting money into farming and education.
He pointed to Anambra under Obi and Kano under himself as proof they can widen access to school. In his time, he said, no Kano child of school age was shut out, and those who qualified moved on to secondary and tertiary institutions.
He thanked Plateau residents for hosting him and his team since they arrived on Thursday evening, and acknowledged birthday messages sent to him on October 21.
What happens next
Kwankwaso asked Plateau voters to turn out for the NDC and its candidates and to stay and guard the ballots, recalling that Obi carried the state in 2023. He said the Kwankwasiyya Movement now adds to the Obidient base there. The party says it will announce a new date for the Obi-led meeting.
