Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, on Wednesday addressed the phenomenon of emigration by Nigerians and advised that it is unnecessary.
Tinubu said Nigeria is so blessed that her citizens needed not to seek greener pastures elsewhere.
He made the declaration while addressing a campaign rally in Enugu.
According to him, some Nigerians who ran overseas for greener pastures ended up facing hardships.
He said there is no country like Nigeria in Africa, adding that he should be supported to renew and to rebuild the country.
“Those who are running overseas are suffering. We have been there. Anybody who tells you that you cannot do something, pray you can do it,’’ he said.
The emigration phenomenon is called Japa, a Yoruba word meaning ‘to escape’.
According to the APC presidential flag bearer, Lagos as a state is better than many countries in the Western world.
He stressed that if Igbo should collaborate with his expected government, he would make the geopolitical zone a manufacturing hub.
Speaking particularly about Enugu, Tinubu said he would make Enugu to become an industrial hub greater than what it is today.
He described his campaign organisation as a moving train that was prepared to win election saying that any attempt to stand before the moving train would end in fiasco.
“You cannot block the way of success. It is only the ignorant that will stand on the way of victory.
“We are not looking for 25 per cent votes. We are working assiduously until Bola Ahmed Tinubu becomes the president of Nigeria,’’ he stressed.
Tinubu urged Enugu State people and Igbos in general to vote for him so that they would partake in sharing of major national cake.
“It is only when you invest that you can harvest. It is only when you vote for me that you will share from the national cake,’’ he declared.
Mr Uche Nnaji, APC’s governorship candidate in Enugu State, Gov. Hope Uzodimma of Imo and Gov. Umahi of Ebonyi also addressed the rally.
However, they differed on the percentage of votes that Tinubu would poll in the Southeast.
While Nnaji made a forecast of 30 per cent of the votes, Uzodimma said he expected a landslide.
Umahi predicted 90 per cent of votes from the geopolitical zone for Tinubu.
“We have to vote for APC so that we will not lose. We are not looking at 60 per cent or 80 per cent, but 100 per cent of the votes,’’ Umahi said.
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