Asiwaju Project Beyond 2023, a foremost support group for Bola Tinubu, the Presidential Candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC) has organized a special capacity building for affiliated support groups as they marked the Independent Anniversary celebration
The aim the group said is to build the capacity of the footsoldiers of Tinubu to be able to sell his candidature to Nigerians as the 2023 electioneering campaigns begins in earnest
This was done under “Project Beyond 2023” capacity building for affiliated support groups with the theme “Tinubu/Shettima ticket: A pan Nigerian project’ held in Abuja to celebrate Nigerian Independence on October 1st, 2022.
One of the lecturers at the capacity building, Dr. Kayode Opeifa, former Commissioner for Transportation, Lagos state said the 2023 election is going to be a unique one where you have four prominent persons contesting for president, unlike before. There is need for us to train the support groups on the product the APC have to offer to Nigerians.
“We need to know about their background, their achievements and their plans for Nigeria so that as we engage the electorate, we will be able to address their concerns/questions, if any, for us to be able to win the election in 2023.
He said “Asiwaju Project Beyond 2023 has been in existence for the past 13 years”, with structures across the whole country, adding “we have state coordinators in all the states and the FCT; we have local government coordinators and ward coordinators. We are now recruiting 10 canvassers per polling unit to take the message to the grassroots.
“This is because elections are not won in Abuja, elections are won at the grassroots. So, every nook and cranny of the country will hear this message. We are going to train our coordinators at the state, local government and ward levels. We are going to train even our canvases so that they can sell the product that we have as Jagaba and Shettima.
We are training representatives of almost 600 support groups that have registered with us. We are training them to have the capacity, the know-how and the knowledge of the product called Asiwaju/Shettima ticket.
Dr. Opeifa said their brand is the APC, their product is Jagaban/Shettima while their message differs from audience to audience. “We are talking to people of different backgrounds. Our leaders must be correct to learn how to talk to people of different generations.
According to him, the message for Hausa audience is different from the one for Christians, just as the one for Biafra is different too.
He said their target is to surpass the performance of the APC in 2015 and 2019. “In 2015, the APC won the presidential election with 2 million votes, 2019 it won with 4 million votes and in 2023, the gap must increase”.
Speaking in a similar vein, the Director General, Project Beyond 2023, Barrister Rilwan Okpanachi said the capacity building training was for those who will campaign for Tinubu/Shettima ticket to know their product and their customer, adding that “Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Kashim Shettima represent the best we can offer at the moment.
“This is the first time we are going to have president and vice president from the private sector, haven worked in international companies, (Tinubu with Mobil and Shettima with Zenith Bank).
“We are proud of the product we have. They have given their all to the country and they are ready to empty themselves for Nigeria”, Okpanachi said.
The National Women Director of Project Beyond 2023, Hafsat Usman said there is plan also for them to invite all their women leaders and their deputies for the same training in Abuja very soon.
She said “when it comes to gender issues, Jagaban is not bias, as you can see his wife is a politician. He is somebody that encourages women to get into politics.
“We are planning to take it down to the grassroots level to teach young women, through women in politics forum, where we train young girls to become politicians.
Others who spoke at the capacity building training are Agboola Lukman Dabiri, Executive Secretary, Economic Planning, Revenue Generation and PPP, FCT, and Abubakar Alkali, former APC presidential aspirant (2019), Convener Tinubu) Shettima Alliance for Nigeria (TISAN).