‘Tinubu-Shettima presidency will unify Nigeria’

The Patriots Roundtable, a support group for the presidential and vice presidential candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and Kashim Shettima, has reiterated its commitment to the candidature of the former governors because it is convinced that their emergence will unify the country.

The National Coordinator of the group, Prince Uthman Shodipe-Dosunmu, said after a thorough examination, they decided to pitch camp with the Tinubu-Shettima’s ticket, based on their vision about the indivisibility of the Nigerian nation.

He said this is predicated on equity and fairness, and the accommodation of diverse views, without a recourse to any form of favouritism to any tribe or sectarian group.

Shodipe-Dosunmu said they were ready to engage without bias, debate without malice and tussle in the intellectual fray of ideas and idealism with purposeful patriotic largeness.

The columnist-cum politician said the journey ahead would be tough and tasking, because of naysayers and malignant agents of envy and recidivism. He added that as much as there would be provocateurs of ruin pretending to salvage emblems, the group is ready and will be unyielding in its resolve.

On the reason for the support, Shodipe-Dosunmu said, “at every critical juncture of a nation-state, all patriots must stake their purpose in the continuity of their country.  All patriots must proclaim their position amid the conflicting national fray. All patriots must stand out, boldly identifying with some defining values and verities.

“Here, there is no straddling the fence. No distant indifference in the affairs of the state.  There can be no plea of neutrality or gestural docility.  There can be no self-eclipsing in the closet of the unconcerned.”

He said: “The Nigerian Union is at a crossroads. It is weighed down by multifarious historical challenges and a bitter and pestiferous burden of the present. There are hurdles everywhere.  Voices are colliding in sometimes crude, fissiparous passion.

“But we must move from the brink. We must withdraw from the destructive edge. We must steer towards compromise and the peace of the Roundtable.

“Our position is borne upon necessary amity and accommodating fairness. Our guiding vision is about truth and conscionable shepherding as the defining core of nation building.”

Shodipe-Dosunmu added, “The Patriots Roundtable leitmotif.  Amid the hollering and conflicting ideals about the Nigerian journey as our nation pivots towards the 2023 general elections, we have joined the fray to enlighten and guide, to contribute and support, to strengthen and enhance the national democratic space.”