The presidency has said President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will run his campaign for a fresh mandate on the strength of his achievements in the last 3 years.

Media aides of President Tinubu made the declaration on Monday at a media briefing in Abuja.

The media session is on the heels of a tour to showcase the achievements of the present administration across 36 states of the federation and the six geopolitical zones.

The media tour, scheduled to commence this week, is an initiative of the Renewed Hope Agenda, which has Imo State Governor and Chairman of the Progressive Governors Forum, Senator Hope Uzodimma, as Director-General and National Coordinator.

Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, and another presidential spokesperson who doubles as Director of Media and Publicity of the RHA revealed that the tour would commence from the North West geopolitical zone.

Tunde Rahman noted that the objective of the tour was to convince Nigerians that Tinubu has kept faith with his promise to deliver quality social infrastructures and touch the lives of Nigerians in all facets.

He said, “Like Mr Onanuga also told you, this is coming under the auspices of the Renew Hope Ambassadors. This Renew Hope Ambassador is actually becoming the main vehicle for Mr President’s second-term re-election programme, re-election campaign.

“And what we are doing at the Renew Hope Ambassador is not to reinvent the wheel. We are trying to showcase all the achievements of Mr President, and they articulate them and bring them to the whole of Nigeria so that Nigeria can see that a lot has been done in the last three years.

“And, you know, as opposed to 2023, when he was elected essentially based on his credentials and what the APC under President Buhari had done. This time around, he will be running on his own achievements, and we are saying that a lot has been done.”

Rahman also declared that the tour would afford Nigerians the opportunity to disregard the narrative that the North has been sidelined in the provision of social infrastructures, as is being peddled in certain quarters.

“There is so much to showcase, particularly in the Northwest. The Northwest is very critical, and that’s why we are starting from the Northwest. We need journalists to be with us when we go on that tour so that you can see physically what has been done.”

Corroborating the presidential spokespersons on the positive achievements and impacts of the present administration in the North, Engineer Finbarr Zirra, Director of Rail Transport Services, Federal Ministry of Transportation, enumerated infrastructural projects under construction and near completion in the North.

He recalled that the railway master plan, which was conceived in 2002, had since integrated the North.

“Today, we have the Abuja-Kaduna Railway in service. Then, Lagos-Ibadan is also being used. But a lot has been done on Kaduna to Kano.

“As I mentioned, the Kaduna-Kano railway line is at substantial completion. In fact, the Maradi to Kano has been completed. Now, we’re having Kaduna to Abuja; hopefully, by the end of the year, that sector will be linked.

“Then, the other contract, this one, is being handled by the Chinese company. There’s another one, the Portuguese, who are handling Kano to Katsina to Jibia and also to Maradi. Maradi is 40 kilometres into Niger.

“There’s a branch line starting from Kano to Dutse, about 100 kilometres. The total length of this is about 400 kilometres. And work is progressively going on. I hope that by the end of the year, from Kano to Katsina will be completed.”

He equally dropped the hint of a proposed N200 billion investment in a speed train that will be driven by the private sector.

“Now, there’s a high-speed train being proposed, and the cost of investment is about N200 billion by the private sector. That time, we started from Lagos to Kano and then also Lagos to Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt to Kano. So you can see that Kano, northwest, is central to what the government is doing – investing so much in that region.

“About $2 billion is being put into the Kano-Maradi railway project; it is another huge investment. And as I said, it’s a standard gauge because the colonial masters built what we call ‘narrow’. This one is a standard gauge. The difference between this one is that it’s faster and it’s modern, you know.” (Nigerian Tribune)

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