By Caleb Ishaya
Ahead of the Saturday, February 21 Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Council Election, the Secretary of the All Progressives Congress, APC, FCT Election Campaign Council and Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu, has declared that the APC will deploy intensive grassroots mobilisation, including door-to-door engagement and youth-driven strategies to reclaim the area councils.
Kalu made the remarks while inaugurating the APC FCT Election Campaign Council yesterday in Abuja, where he appealed to Igbo voters by emphasising inclusion and representation as central campaign messages.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has fixed February 21 for the FCT Area Council elections.
Meanwhile, the 138-member APC FCT Campaign Council will be chaired by the Kwara State governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq.
He emphasised that his presence in national leadership demonstrates that the Igbos are fully represented in the current administration, adding that the party would leverage this message alongside visible developmental projects and grassroots engagement to secure strong support from Igbo communities during the elections.
Kalu stated, “Like you mentioned, there are a lot of Igbo people living in Abuja, just as there are other people from other parts of the country also residing here because the FCT is the melting point of the entire population of Nigeria. But, as you rightly pointed out, a lot of Igbos are living here to do business.
“I am an Igbo man and also a Nigerian, and I am part of this government. I am one of the faces of Igbos in leadership. So we can no longer say we are not part of the administration.
“This did not happen in the previous administration. If you look at the previous leadership of the country, there was no Igbo person there.
“Now, they see me every day participating in the governance of this country and I know that it is a big message to my people, that they are not alienated, that they are not marginalised out of the current government.
“That is already a campaign tool for this administration. But suffice it to say that it has made a huge impact in the FCT. Under the present government, there is a great difference from what it used to be and what it is at the moment.
“I also want to thank Minister Nyesom Wike, who has done tremendously well, not just impacting the urban areas of the FCT, but making governance felt even at the grassroots.”
He affirmed that everyone would unite and work together to secure victory in the Federal Capital Territory.
Kalu continued, “These are our campaign tools. That is what we are taking to the market. We are going beyond posters. We are going beyond radio jingles. We are going beyond campaign slogans into the FCT. We are saying the facts speak for themselves.
“You can feel our development. You can touch and experience what we have brought as dividends of democracy. So there is going to be less job for us to do. Yes, we struggled in the past because there was no visible evidence of the impact of government within the FCT. But no reasonable person can say the same thing currently.
“We are here to convince our people that the government that has done this for them is ready to do more if given the opportunity to provide leadership in the six area councils.
“I can assure you that we will bring the energy of young minds and their innovative mindedness to push the agenda to the grassroots. We will be on the streets. We will be in every household. We will go door to door, business to business, to sell the message of APC.”
In his remarks, the APC National Chairman, Nentawe Yilwatda, disclosed that governors have already begun campaigning for the candidates.
Yilwatda stated, “The campaign was done at the grassroots, among our people, across all tribes of Nigeria. It is not selective. We have our governors who have been coming to town. They are from the South-South, South-East, North-Central and North-West, representing all regions of the country.
“We have governors from these regions and all of them have been reaching out to the people in their own way, going to the communities and they have dispatched leadership within those groups and tribes. So, we are mobilising more than any other political party in Nigeria. We are confident that we will win the election.”
