APC Support Groups Applaud President Tinubu’s First Year: “A Promising Start”
The amalgamated All-Progressive Congress APC Support Group”s score cards for the first year of the All-Progressives Congress, the APC-led administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, have been given a pass mark and applauded.
This was affirmed on May 28 in recognition of the performance and achievement of Tinubu’s administration based on well-articulated policy formulation and implementation in the last twelve months.
In his address, while briefing reporters on the first year of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration, Alhaji Salman Akurede, an APC stalwart and a frontline aspirant of the office of the Director General of AASG, said that while the group acknowledges the performance and achievements of the administration so far, they encourage the government to do more in the areas of service delivery to enable Nigerians to reap the dividends of democracy.
The group also called on President Tinubu to create more incentives to encourage women entrepreneurs at the grassroots to support the poverty allevation programme of the renewed hope agenda.
It, however, pleaded with Nigerians to be patient and continue to support the president with the assurance that he will deliver on his campaign promises.
Akorede asserted that the group recognises that the first twelve months have been turbulent, given the very bold steps that this administration has taken in the formulation and implementation of very tough economic reform policies.
He said, “We are very optimistic that, gradually, the reforms are yielding results with the value of our local currency maintaining some reasonable level of stability, compared to the previous months when the naira witnessed a daily crash against the dollar.”
“We must also admit that the inflation rates are still very high, thus skyrocketing the prices of essential commodities almost beyond affordability, and we plead with the government to address these issues as quickly as possible to bring some succour to the masses who are most hit by the attendant hardships.
“While we acknowledge tremendous improvement in the area of security, there’s much more to be done to curb the menace of bandits, armed robbery, and kidnapping that are still wreaking havoc in many communities across the nation.”
“We suggest that the government undertake a comprehensive review of the nation’s security architecture with a view to upgrading capacity to effectively tackle security challenges in the country.”
Alhaji Akurede further said that as people who deal directly with the grassroots and have keenly observed the vulnerability of the youths and their rampant involvement in crime and criminality, a lot needs to be done by this government in the area of job creation to reduce youth unemployment and drastically minimize their use to perpetrate these menaces.
Akurede said that they wish to remind President Tinubu that most of their members, who were his grassroot campaigners and foot soldiers during the elections, have still not been compensated, rewarded, or received any form of recognition from his government.
“While this may not be a deliberate act of commission or omission on the part of the government, we feel this requires very urgent attention now, as the race for the 2027 general elections has begun in earnest.”
“The role and importance of the support groups cannot and should not be downplayed by an incumbent interested in securing a second term of office.
We have observed quite painfully how the lack of inclusion of support group members in government has not only alienated us from the government we worked hard to bring on board but, also, has created a bug gulf, which the opponents are exploiting to dominate the public space with negative narratives about the government, giving it a very unpalatable public perception among the people.”
“We do not need to stress the point that all the negative backlashes and public outrage being directed at our government are a result of the absence of the real foot soldiers who would have been better placed to publicise and defend the government, had their potentials been tapped and deployed to effective use by the government.”
“We must admit here that despite the remarkable work that has been done by this government in the last year, its public perception is not on the high side, and this should be a cause for concern.”
“In our view, there is a very low or near absence of the involvement of parties and supporters in the running of the affairs of government, which has made the APC administration vulnerable on all fronts, giving the opposition a free reign.”
“This cannot be allowed to continue unchecked if the project 2027 is to succeed.
We therefore urge Mr. President to remember his promise to reward loyalty and hard work by immediately setting machinery in motion for the inclusion of support group members in his administration. “
“We also would like to appeal to the party to speed up action towards ensuring the conduct of a credible election for the amalgamated APC Support Groups (AASG).”
Time is no longer on our side, he said.
