Honourable Zephaniah Bitrus Jisalo is the Coordinator of the Tinubu/Shettima Campaign Council in the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, for the forthcoming presidential election. In this interview with Chamba Simeh, Jisalo underscored the significance of the inauguration of the PCC in Abuja last week. He expressed optimism that Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, will win in the FCT by a landslide. Excerpts:
What is the significance of the FCT PCC launch last week?
Answer: The launch brings to an end the speculations on when the inauguration would happen and marks the beginning of our campaign for the total victory of our candidate in in the presidential election scheduled for the 25th of this month.
We congratulate you for the wonderful inauguration ceremony as many have commended the event as glamorous and standard setting
Thank you very much for this commendation. We deliberately decided to make it a glamour of an event because I can tell you that it is already a celebration of the victory of our presidential candidate at the polls because his appeal among the voters in the FCT cannot be matched by the opposition candidates. Thanks again.
We also found out from the list of the members of your PCC and those that were in attendance at that inauguration that it is an assemblage of those that matter in the politics of the FCT. How did you achieve this?
Yes. I want to use this opportunity to thank my PCC chairman in Abuja, who is no other than the Minister of State for the FCT, Dr Ramatu Tijjani Aliyu, for her unalloyed support and sterling leadership. In fact, I am overwhelmed because I feel very lucky to have her as our pillar of support and this has translated into what you saw at that inauguration; a team that is united and which consists of the best in every field of human endeavours coming together to work assiduously for the best presidential candidate among those jostling for the presidency of our country.
Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is a man of excellence and so it is naturally expected that anything which is done in his name must be done excellently. The inauguration ceremony should send a message to all that in this campaign for our principal in the FCT, it would be a carnival like atmosphere that would mark a celebration of the victory of our candidate because his victory is sure.
We want to know from you sir your strategies for this campaign?
Thank you for this question. We are really done strategising for this campaign. I told you that the man Bola Tinubu is a name that is synonymous with excellence and I mean excellence in the true sense of the word. We insist on using the door to door advocacy and campaign methods. We as a committee are basically charged to sell our good product because like all good products, we are to advertise its usage and importance so that the public would know about it and know how to use it to good effect as well as its benefits.
That is what our door to door campaign will be all about. Our strategies are ones that have been tested and a model highlighting the competence and promises of our candidate and which make him the best foot forward as president of our country. We are going to take the message of renewed hope to every nook and cranny of the FCT, to every stakeholder, to every voting bloc and to every voter. Our campaign will be robust, enlightening, issue-based, focused on competence, the pedigree of our candidate, the need for continuity of the policies of President Muhammadu Buhari and the issue of public trust. We are aware that the opposition parties in their desperation are employing the old and abandoned strategy of using the instruments of cheap blackmail and empty rhetorics to hoodwink undecided voters. Our candidate with his trail blazing success in all fields of his political life cannot be compared to those using name callings weaponised to spread falsehood; they will not succeed because a pessimist is a well informed optimist.
We know that your assignment has been difficult given the fact that everybody must have been interested in working for your team. How did you select your members and committee’s assignment without rancour?
I told you at the beginning of this interview that my work has been made easy by the leadership experience and maturity of the Hon. Minister of State of the FCT and the chairman of the PCC in FCT, Dr Ramatu Tijjani Aliyu. The selection of the members of the PCC and the assignments to the standing committee of the directorate was done without rancour because we have been seen to be fair in carrying out this important assignment. The selection was based on competence and the testimony of the loyalty of the individual members to the cause and the capacity to deliver. The guidelines employed in this selection process made the assignment devoid of rancour and in the final analysis peaceful as you can see.
What is basically next on the agenda of the PCC of FCT under your headship, because the presidential poll is around the corner?
We are ready to at a high speed embark on the campaign using our strategies to complete road map created to make our job easier. In the coming days we shall be visible everywhere because we are not leaving any stone unturned in ensuring the galvanisation and mobilisation of the voters from every nook and cranny of the territory for our principal is complete. We shall be intensifying our campaign through the viable and impenetrable visible structures of the APC, and we know success is ours.
Finally, sir. What are your expectations?
Answer: Victory. Victory. Victory. This time around the APC shall break the jinx of not winning Abuja at any presidential election because our product is not a master of failures but excellence. Make no mistake about it, we shall be conquerors, by God’s grace. Tinubu has paid his dues and the masses appreciate this.
