First Lady of Nigeria, Senator Oluremi Tinubu has inaugurated the Tinubu Torchbearers (TTB), the women arm of the grassroots mobilisation platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), reports thegazellenews.com
At the inauguration ceremony, the First Lady said the initiative would help promote the Renewed Hope Agenda and strengthen support for President Bola Tinubu’s second-term bid.
Senator Oluremi Tinubu noted that the platform which was designed to represent commitment, patriotism, service, and the collective aspiration for a stronger and more prosperous Nigeria underscores the importance of women to national development.
“History has consistently shown that women are the backbone of thriving societies.
“ TTB would help communicate the vision of government, mobilize communities, encourage civic participation, and promote national unity.
“President Tinubu entered office with a clear commitment to reposition our nation through bold reforms and strategic interventions in the areas of economic recovery, infrastructure, security, education and social investment,” she said.
The First Lady stated further that, “significant steps” had already been taken to strengthen agriculture, support local industries, improve healthcare, create jobs, attract investment and expand opportunities for Nigerians across sectors.
Senator Tinubu urged members of the TTB to become true ambassadors of the Renewed Hope Agenda asking them to communicate the administration’s programmes clearly and responsibly to the citizens.
“Government alone cannot achieve sustainable development without the support, cooperation, and active participation of the people. It is hoped movement should inspire hope, unity and progress across our beloved nation.”
APC National Chairman, Nentawe Yilwatda, represented by Deputy National Chairman (South), Benjamin Nwoye said the initiative aligns with the aspirations of Nigerians who believe in the Renewed Hope Agenda.
He said the movement would provide a platform for “grassroots mobilization, women empowerment, national unity, and citizen engagement,” adding that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had shown “uncommon courage” in confronting long-standing national challenges.
He commended APC women as one of the party’s greatest assets, saying their resilience, loyalty, sacrifice and mobilization had strengthened the ruling party.
The APC National Chairman urged members to carry “a torch of hope, a torch of unity, a torch of development, and a torch of progress” into every part of the country.
The APC National Women Leader, Mary Alile Idele, described the Senator Oluremi Tinubu’s pet project, Renewed Hope initiative, RHI as “a weapon of compassion” saying it brings government closer to the people.
She commended the initiative’s nationwide reach, saying it already has structures across all 774 local government areas.
APC National Secretary, Senator Surajudeen Basiru, represented by Deputy National Secretary, AbdulKarim Kana said the inauguration was “not just another political gathering” but “a touching milestone” in the party’s journey under the Renewed Hope Agenda.
Kana said women had always been “the backbone” of political and national advancement, adding that the torchbearers would help ensure that “achievements, policies, and information” reach grassroots communities across the country.
The Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim, also applauded the platform, saying “one heart can transform a community” and that “when millions of hearts carry the same light, a nation will rise.”
She described the TTB as a movement carrying a message and sustaining a vision that is “actively reshaping the destiny of our beloved nation,” while commending the APC women leadership for creating a strategic platform to celebrate what she called the “transformative leadership” of President Tinubu under the Renewed Hope Agenda.
The event attracted party leaders, women groups and government officials, all of whom described the Tinubu Torchbearers as a vehicle for political mobilization and public communication ahead of the next phase of the Tinubu administration.
Insipid and Hubris Gang-up Against M.A Abubakar
By Sanusi Muhammad
Wonders shall never end as far as Nigerians prefer democracy as the best form of government. Notwithstanding, there are those hiding under the democracy to twist veritable facts, cause confusion and create unnecessary fear for a hidden interest against the socio-economic survival of the people claiming to be holier-than-thou as pretending democrats lacking both sincerity of purpose and focus.
I read through a published advertorial by Daily Trust Newspaper edition of Monday, June 1, 2026 authored by one ‘Haruna Yusuf Bauchi’ titled: The Storm After Bauchi APC Primary…….” The piece made an interesting reading by exposing a clear case of mischief from a jaundiced mind.
The time is not ripe to drag those so desperate to disfigure the strongest Bauchi State 2027 gubernatorial contestant, M.A Abubakar to oblivion ostensibly for an easy sail to victory of their most preferred, candidates for 2027.
Fear of the strength and experience within the lexicon of M.A Abubakar, remains the reason for the attempted, murder of his reputation and past stewardship by lapdogs and ingrates.
As for now, Nigerians are watching how their looted resources are channeled to bribe offering to woe cheap politicians to opposition to strengthen their numbers targeted at electioneering campaign to block the chances of Bola Ahmed Tinubu and M.A Abubakar under the guise of an imagination labeled as imposition, and, there is already an expected increase in the tempo of campaign activities by the various political parties with each trying to outwit the other with or without justification.
In Bauchi State peculiar scenario, electioneering by the opposition parties is going to be an extra-ordinary display of hubris by some of the state actors who wittingly or unwittingly have chosen deceit, lies, and crude blackmail as means of achieving their diabolical goal.
Of particular note is the frenetic energy with which some players within the APC, along with some lapdogs and bread liners, who are in the absence of any reasonable gainful engagement, busy themselves promoting the gubernatorial dream of defeated political novices, some in possession of funds they cannot account or defend the legitimate source.
Some of the misfits are said to be heading to weaker opposition parties in desperation to try luck but pretending to support President Tinubu to victory in 2027.
As political amateurs swimming in crafted deceit by marabouts and Babalawos, foolishly they opened their vaults for access by the usual merchants while trying to challenge the election of a man tested and anointed by God, waiting to serve with malicious gusto.
Once again, the traditional and customary merchants are desperate to load their cash cows over the ignorant just as they did in 2019 to quench their thirst.
They claim to be APC members in the morning, but hobnobbing with opposition in nights. Instead of accepting what God ordained to retrieve their steps and realize their weaknesses for trying to challenge the will of God, for the same unthinkable reason, they have regrouped and back to the trenches, trying to play the discarded old tricks in same old ways. They now go about it more ferociously; lying, deceiving, blackmailing, and dishing out outright misinformation on the victory of M.A Abubakar at the primaries.
In their discarded attempt to win the sympathy of the gullible, they are now going beyond the call of duty, disparaging the image of the candidate for undoing some of the wrongs they had done while messing up in the polity.
At the kick-start of their gubernatorial aspiration tricks, they labored in-vain to confuse the unsuspecting motley crowd with crude lies, blackmail and mischief against the most respected and acceptable aspirant who happens to be their albatross and thorn in their infantile ambition. In trying to hoodwink other ignorant party members, they maintain grave yard silence on the benefits youths and women are to drive if President Tinubu and M.A Abubakar are trusted with governance.
To put the records straight, however, a close confident of M.A Abubakar in a quick response to the shenanigans, clarified those issues mischievously raised, by internal opposition and dismissed the outburst, as shameful, unfounded and unguided.
His words: “It is a shame that rather than internal opposition to applaud the ingenuity of M.A Abubakar for rooting the party against all odds when he held sway for a better Bauchi State, they have resorted to blackmail and mischief and trading in fabricated lies sourced from their feeble imaginations.
“M.A Abubakar within his first two years has initiated and completed several projects to improve not only the fortunes of Bauchi State but the entire North-east sub-region that deserves commendation.”
But for those of us, who have taken it upon himself in line of duty to respond appropriately and professionally to the bundle of lies traded by desperados seeking power to abuse, on his part, M.A Abubakar doesn’t feel an inch perturbed by those ceaseless campaigns of calumny as he focuses attention more on the plight of the people than attending to issues of no substance.
As a man of honor and integrity, he has demonstrated immeasurable patience and forbearance in all manners of circumstances. In the face of all lies, deceit and deliberate distortion of facts in a bid to smear his good reputation, he keeps an abiding faith in the social contract he entered into with the people of Bauchi State, refusing to succumb to any form of cheap blackmail or condescending to the level of engaging in a war of words with his overzealous political adversaries.
Since the facts are glaring and before the public court, the electorate to weigh the options available before them, and fathom out where the truth is stationed.
This is even more so that he operates an open, inclusive, transparent and accountable representation. It only behooves on those who see politics as dirty game to rethink and do a possible review of their strategy for power acquisition.
Politics itself is not that dirty as erroneously believed in some quarters. What makes it look as a dirty game is the way and manner the players go about pursuing their ambitions without modicum of decency and decorum.
In an election, it is not unusual for politicians to do a review of strategic alliances for the mutual benefit of the parties in the race, while also remaining independent in certain spheres. With the alliance review in Bauchi State, the future relevance of certain politicians including those in blind opposition to the candidature of M.A Abubakar is impressively on trial as we approach 2027.
Ordinarily, no one goes into an election with the hope of losing. But it is also a known fact that only one person will surely win in an election to an elective position at a time. So, when two partners decide to go into an alliance it is usually with a conviction that the benefits derivable from the synergy will be greater than those from individual efforts. But the question here is: What is there for offer by internal opposition aspirants? Practically nothing other than retrogressive ideas tailored to fracturing APC and derailment of the party’s expected victory.
The truth of the matter is that the gang-up against the chances of M.A Abubakar as gubernatorial hopeful was at crossroads in its political journey. Those in the gang-up are inadvertently caught up in a delicate balance between the need to retrieve their steps for loyalty to APC on one hand, with less objective of promoting their preferred candidates in other parties on the other hand. By so doing, they erroneously believe they can navigate through the political turbulence ahead of M.A Abubakar to remain relevant in Bauchi State politics. They are getting it all wrong!
For the latter option, the answer is predictable as it is much easier for the proverbial camel to pass through the hole of a needle than for any of the masquerades to defeat the endorsed APC candidate.
History is there to serve as a guide to political pundits who may want to hold a contrary view. But the problem is that people hardly learn from the lesson of history. Suffice it to say, however, that no matter how much one tries to ignore history, history in all its alienating necessities will not ignore you. If in 2019, some of those masquerades with all the paraphernalia of the offices they occupied combined with the enormous powers they wielded could not defeat M.A Abubakar, how can they have a baseless fight from outside the corridor of power to win an election for their new found friends?
Those masquerades need no soothsayer to be told the home truth about their failing project which is doomed to fail from the onset because nothing supported their aspiration in the primary equation to turn the tide against M.A Abubakar.
For all those clowns care, is rather delusional and presumptuous to think that party members, who never rejected the most credible contestant in 2019, would decide to embrace the same archaic antics of the power game, and abandon their best candidate who is served with dexterity spiced with passion.
By opting for particular opponents within the APC, the masquerades are finally completing the full circle of their political journey in Bauchi State. For the benefit of hind sight, some of those masquerades are political associates of APC in the day time and its detractors at night until they were defeated with their evil intentions. Therefore, having run a full circle in all their trysts, the only alternative left to correct the error of judgment that is leading them to political wilderness is to retrace their steps and reunite with the Tinubu and M.A Abubakar Movement for the overall interest of the people they claim to love.
Regrettably, with the failing gang-up and the desperation that is accounting for the sustained campaign of calumny against APC leadership, it appears the masquerades camp is learning nothing and forgetting nothing from the past. Because they saw the coming of defeat with lightening speed and stirred them in the face ahead of the gubernatorial primary election, but they continued to spin falsehood against a winner. Such malicious strategy of the masquerades is destined to fail as the people are aware of where the truth lies.
In politics, as in conventional warfare, what matters is not your strategy but the strategy of the enemy camp. In this case, it is quite clear that the intention of opposition within all the traded lies about the primary election is to send fears of non-existing defeat in general elections. But it is a road that leads to only the ditch. It is like building something on nothing. The strategy of concocting lies against the winner cannot stand because the people’s eyes are widely open.
In no time, every lie told against him will come down like a pack of cards. One obvious thing is that every citizen of good conscience knows that the APC primary election was open, transparent, and credible. That, primarily, is the essence of the party’s leadership policy that makes the people part and parcel of the decision making process to establish the necessary trust and confidence in the process.
So, it doesn’t matter the intention of those who prefer the option of bare-faced lies, subtle blackmail and outright misinformation to issue-based electioneering and constructive engagement, there will be a triumph of light over darkness.
For the majority of the people of Bauchi State, a vote for the election of M.A Abubakar will be a right vote for continuity of the goodies in a bigger capacity. With the trust and confidence that currently exist between him and majority of the people, there is no doubt that they will patriotically vote overwhelmingly for him. As they say, no one changes a winning team in the middle of the game.
Several times in the recent past, the masquerades were overheard, boasting of their relevance and the power to dictate the shots in Bauchi State. Without prejudice to the rights of the electorate to elect a candidate of their choice, all dynamics put together, the primary election was a triumph of the truth over falsehood in the State. It doesn’t matter the childish and mischievous gang-up, and all other forms of shenanigans on display by those in opposition, M.A’s victory is a sure deal, courtesy of Bauchi State Patriots of Conscience who consistently continue to lend credence to the voice of reason and the imperative of M.A returning to power.
Beyond the argument about credible performance, the need to entrench the principle of justice, fairness, and equity in the system is another reason people will vote for M.A Abubakar rather than handing over Bauchi State to desperate clumsy undertakers.
As the desperados have carried their lost battle to the doors of the impoverished and to the shrine, so shall they lick their wounds as losers jumping from one temple of marabout to the other in search of electorate acceptance till doomsday, comes. I stand by my prophesy anywhere!
Muhammad is a commentator on national issues
