A Day Of Honour For Tinubu In Birnin-Gwari

Tinubu, who arrived in Kaduna around 2:30 pm ahead of the flag-off of the APC Northwest presidential campaign rally scheduled for the Ahmadu Bello Stadium, Kaduna, immediately embarked on the six-hour round trip to Birnin Gwari, where he was received by the Amir of Birnin Gwari, Zubairu Jibrin Maigwari.

At the Emir’s palace, Tinubu said he decided to visit the emirate to have first-hand information about the spate of banditry and terrorism in the area and see how it has affected the people. “What is important to every people is security, that is why I said I would be here today and God brought us.

“We would give you peace. There is a good opportunity coming, the election is near, I don’t know whether the bandits knew that or not but we serve them notice again that we would not relent in our efforts to eliminate banditry. On our way down here, left and right we have great arable land. We can turn the soil around and produce crops of value out of the soil since the soil is rich. We promise we would work hard and make Nigeria a better place. We are here to say we belong to a community of democrats in which you belong. I’m here to assure you to tell all people of the Emirate to vote for APC then leave the promise to us.”

All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Candidate Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, his running mate Senator Kashim Shettima, and five governors paid a night visit to Kaduna State’s bandit-ravaged Birnin Gwari local government area.
The people of the Emirate, through the Birnin-Gwari Emirate Progressive Union (BEPU), issued a five-point demand to the Presidential Candidate for implementation if he is elected President of Nigeria.

“I am donating the sum of N50 million to the victims of banditry in the Birnin Gwari area. We promised you, we will give the road a priority, be rest assured. Endure some more. We appreciate the value of infrastructure and there cannot be an economic recovery without infrastructure.

El-Rufai, in his remarks, said the presidential candidate felt it would be unfair for him to visit Kaduna without visiting Birnin Gwari hence the visit. “He came to confirm what he has heard about insecurity in Birnin Gwari not to come and campaign. We have the best, the most experience, the most educated, the most caring presidential and vice presidential candidates. On our way here, Asiwaju said ‘see trees, see greenery we can put an industrial borehole and do all-year farming and agriculture, this place can feed the nation.”

The Emir of Birnin Gwari expressed delight that for the first time, a presidential candidate and his vice presidential candidate are visiting his emirate and to show his appreciation conferred the title of Dakare (Fearless Commander) Tinubu and the title of Sadauki (Hero) on el-Rufai. “I don’t believe there would be a day when Birnin Gwari will receive visitors like this. I don’t believe the presidential candidate of APC will come here because the road is terrible and it is surrounded by bandits.

“You are a gallant soldier, who believes in fighting until you win. Whoever comes here come because of his love for the people. Your being here in Birnin Gwari is very important to me so I want to honour you with the title of Dakare Birnin Gwari. I believe a leader should have three things, he should be fearless, firm and fair. When Asiwaju becomes president I don’t know how I will bring him here to turban him so I will do the turbaning now. For Governor Nasir el-Rufai I’m conferring the title of Sadauki Birnin Gwari.

“I’ve not seen someone who says he wants to dare the bandits and come to Birnin Gwari even if the road is very bad. Your Excellency please tell Fashola to cone and finish our road before he leaves,” the Monarch said.

In its statement, Birnin-Gwari Emirate Progressive Union (BEPU) appreciated the visit of the APC Presidential Candidate to Birnin-Gwari and the Emir’s Palace to sympathize with him on the impact of insecurity in the community.

The said: “Though renewed commitment in addressing the issue is recently being observed. It is on this that we are making the following demands to the presidential candidate.

“We are in dire need of peace. We want him to give priority to security. For Birnin-Gwari, Security is our number one and main priority. We all believe that if our security problem is addressed, then half of our problem is solved. This is because insecurity is what cripples all aspects of development be it agriculture, trading, education, health etc.

“Reconstruction of Birnin-Gwari/Kaduna and Birnin-Gwari/Funtua highways. Criminals take advantage of the poor state of these roads, which were constructed by the Gen. Babangida regime to attack and kidnap travellers. We want these roads to be reconstructed to ease transportation and enhance business and other economic activities in the area.

“As of now, we have about 50 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). We want if he successfully becomes the President to collaborate with relevant stakeholders particularly NGOs in addressing the challenges affecting the IDPs. For instance, the relief materials recently secured from NEMA by Sani Dattijo and Shattima were only shared among Politicians but have never reached the IDPs because relevant stakeholders were not involved.

“Our community is facing water scarcity and nothing reasonable has been done by this outgoing Administration to address it. We want him in collaboration with the State Government to facilitate the reconstruction of the Birnin-Gwari Dam. The dam which is our only major source of drinking water and irrigation has dried off to about 70%. This has resulted in the problem of water scarcity in the community.

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“About 35 basic schools have been sacked due to insecurity. Therefore, some major communities became overpopulated with out-of-school children.  He should collaborate with State Government to ensure reabsorbing of these children into schools. Also, despite its nature of proximity, there is no public higher institution in the area. This made it difficult for our people in pursuing higher education. In fact, many of our children have lost their lives going and coming back from Schools in far places. We, therefore, want him to ensure the passage of the Bill for the establishment of the Federal College of Forestry and Technology in Birnin-Gwari. This is in order to carry our community along in Educational development,” BEPU said.