LAGOS — The 30-year-old man, Mallam Husseini Lawal, is trekking from Abuja to Lagos for the former governor of Lagos State and National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, to contest the 2023 presidential election has arrived Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.
The West African Pilot News had reported that Lawal, a native of Durun, Kabo Local Government Area of Kano State, on Wednesday, March 9 began trekking from Abuja to Lagos to show support for the presidential ambition of the national leader of the APC, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Information made available to Daily Sun revealed that Lawal got married on February 12, 2022. He left for the mission barely three weeks after the wedding ceremony, though his new wife was skeptical to release him to embark on the journey.
In an encounter with journalists at the Press Centre of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Iyaganku Quarters, Ibadan, he stated that he would have embarked on the journey before his wedding, but his people prevailed on him that he should do so after the wedding.
Lawal, a petty trader at Area 7, Informal Sector Market, Garki, Abuja, said he left Abuja with four shirts, two pairs of trousers, and two pairs of shoes, and that one of the shoes had got spoilt on the road and he had thrown it away.
He explained that he has been feeding on the generosity of some people he met in villages and communities that he passed through between Abuja and Ibadan, as well as truck drivers.
He stated further that he has been sleeping in mosques that accommodated him at night, adding that he would wash his clothes in the community and would continue the journey the following morning.
Daily Sun reported that Lawal arrived Ibadan on Monday night, exactly 20 days after leaving Abuja for Lagos. Though he stopped by briefly at the NUJ Press Centre in Ibadan to let journalists know that he was determined to complete the mission, he has since left for Lagos. He is expected to end the journey at Tafawa Balewa Square, Lagos.
His told journalists in Ibadan on Tuesday, “I am a Fulani cattle rearer who had trekked with his cows from Kano to Niger Republic, and from Niger to Sokoto and back to Kano on foot. So, trekking from Abuja to Lagos is nothing to me, whether you will believe me or not.”
Lawal also called on Nigerian youths to support Tinubu to become president in 2023.
He said, “I decided to walk for Tinubu because he remains the only presidential aspirant with the youth in his heart. Tinubu has been supporting youths before he became a governor; he did it as a governor and even after he left office as a governor.
“He remains the only leader who supported Nigerian youths regardless of their religion and ethnicity. Many of the youths who worked under him as a governor are now ministers and even vice president.”
Meanwhile, the media aide to Lawal, Elder Chris Richards, in a statement made available to journalists in Ibadan on Tuesday, quoted the Chairman of Area 7 Petty Traders Association, Alhaji Ahmed Abdullahi Musa, as appealing to the Lagos State governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, to use his good office to see that Lawal is given a rousing welcome in Lagos.
Ezinwanne Onwuka, senior staff reporter and columnist with WAP is a Nigerian-based writer and content developer. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy from the prestigious University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Her interests include reading, writing, researching and graphic designing.
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