The National Union of Blacksmithing and Thinkers Workers of Nigeria (NUBTWN) has endorsed the candidacy of Senators Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Kashim Shettima for the upcoming February 25 presidential election.
National Secretary of the Union, Alhaji Ishaku Kontagora, announced the endorsement on behalf of other members of the organisation at a parley with the National Coordinator of Project 774, Senator Sabi Abdullahi, in Abuja on Monday.
LEADERSHIP reports that Project 774 is a National Support Group for Tinubu’s presidency.
Kontagora said the union was established in 1987 to improve standard of its production from old method to new technology, to meet the demand of the nation.
According to him, the association has more than four million members in Nigeria, with experience in production of cutlasses, planting machines, hoes, harrowing tools, fertilizer application machines, among other simple implements.
He said it was the vision of the union to be the foremost technological producer and consistently offer services both locally and international by supplying quality products to practitioners in agriculture and other sectors.
He said given the current development and support by the current government, the union was endorsing the candidacy of Tinubu and Shettima for the 2023 presidential election.
He said the endorsement wound ensure the current APC government continue the good work started by President Muhammadu Buhari.
He said members of the union, who are blacksmiths and thinkers across the nation were satisfied with antecedents of Tinubu and his agenda for Nigeria especially his plan for a bottom-up approach of development.
The National Coordinator of Project 774, Senator Sabi Abdullahi, said the project was designed to mobilise grassroots support for politics, to positively affect the local people.
According to him, Project 774 for Tinubu and Shettima, which is a national grassroot support group was founded to mobilise grassroot support for Tinubu and Shettima.
Abdullahi expressed gratitude to members of the union for making the endorsement possible.
“We believe that the Project 774 should be local, it should be bottom-up and our hope is to make sure we get to those who are affected with whatever we do in our government,” Senator Abdullahi, who represents Niger North in the Senate, said.
He said he had cause to engage with the blacksmiths and thinkers union through his empowerment scheme as the representative of Niger-North in the Senate.
Abdullahi said Nigeria and most parts of the North are reputed for agriculture, adding that bulk of the rural populace, who engage in agriculture cannot do so without the tools produced by the blacksmithers.
“There is no village or market that you go to, that you will not will see the blacksmith or the Thinkers.
“And so this group of people represents a part of our agriculture heritage and hence I did the empowerment.
“This informed their desire to stand with our presidential candidate, Senator Tinubu, who has shown tremendous interest in the development of this nation, and he does that via bottom-top development process,” he added.
He said Tinubu has demonstrated his bottom-up development approach with what he has done in Lagos State, adding that his running mate, Shettima, has also shown knack to bring development from the bottom-up approach.
Abdullahi said the group coming to endorse the candidature of Tinubu was significant because they were in every single village and town across Nigeria.
“This group, we have here that are also in all the northern Nigeria is a force that we cannot ignore anyway,
“So, I thank you all from the 19 northern states for coming, if Nigeria is to succeed we cannot underrate your role in agriculture.
“This group has the skill to contribute and when they have been upgraded, as we have done in the empowerment scheme I did, they have a lot to contribute in developing new tools and supporting farmers’ production capacity with the tools.”
Abdullahi, therefore, said Tinubu’s presidency would be inclusive and bottom to up.
