Blacksmiths, tinkers promise Tinubu four million votes

The National Union of Blacksmith and Tinkers Workers of Nigeria has endorsed the candidacy of the All Progressives Congress candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, for the February 25 presidential election.

This is even as the union pledged four million votes to ensure his victory at the poll at a forum of blacksmiths from the 19 northern states.

The event was organised by project 774, a National Support Group for Tinubu’s presidency.

A statement signed by the National Secretary of the union, Ishaku Kontagorah, in Abuja on Monday confirmed the endorsement.

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Kontagorah said the union was established in 1987 to improve the standard of its production from old methods 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, holes, harrowing tools, fertiliser application machines and among other simple implements.

Corroborating his view, the National Coordinator of Project 774, Sabi Abdullahi, disclosed that the project was designed to mobilise grassroots support for politics, to positively affect the local people.

Abdullahi expressed gratitude to members of the union for making the endorsement possible.

He said, “We believe that 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. There is no village or market that you go to, that you will not see the blacksmith or the Thinkers. And so, this group of people represent a part of our agriculture heritage and hence I did the empowerment.

“This informed their desire to stand with our presidential candidate Sen. Tinubu who has shown tremendous interest in the development of this nation, and he does that via bottom top development process.

“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.”