A former National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, said on Friday that the ruling party was ahead of the opposition in the campaign for the presidential poll and other elections next year.
Oshiomhole, who spoke to State House Correspondents after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari, spoke about the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP’s) major electoral challenges as a sign that the APC would record emphatic victory in the polls.
The ex-governor of Edo State also applauded the clear development agendas that APC presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, which he had so far marshaled to various stakeholder groups, saying it was another indicator to the party’s superior winning advantages.
According to Oshiomhole, who said he was at the presidential villa to greet President Buhari, whom he described as his father, “the presidential candidate of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar, has depleted the opposition party’s chances by offending some of those who ought to be major backers of his campaign.”
He cited the scenario with the G-5 Governors, just as he pointed out what he described as divisive campaign strategy at a time that the country needed all leaders to pursue national cohesion.
In response to the concerns that the opposition party’s chances were being diminished, he claimed that the PDP’s influence had been diminished because just seven governors were left to lead the party’s candidate’s campaign.
“You now have the G-5 Governors who said the understanding we reached in Asaba, voluntarily, both by PDP and APC governors, they stand by that agreement, namely that leaders must have character and that if you are not yet President and you are not obeying agreement, and Nigerians are talking of national unity you disobeyed the provision of your party constitution, which talks about rotation in order to service that unity and you can go to some parts of the country and say don’t vote for Igbo, don’t vote for Yoruba.
“Those are very damaging statements. It would have been better if you say don’t vote for this person, Obi, don’t vote for Tinubu, that is fine, you talk to their persons, but when you talk about race; don’t vote for Igbo man. So if he’s Igbo, no matter how good, he’s a bad man in his eyes; if he’s Yoruba, no matter how good, he’s a bad man in his eyes, at a time when we need national unity.
“So if you ask me how we are doing, we are doing very well. Whereas the other is now battling with five governors that backed out and you find out how many governors they have, we have 23. Now, if you add 23 to five, I’m not saying the five are with us, but we have 23 with five, I guess that’s 28. If you subtract 28 from 36, it means only eight governors, in fact, seven, because the other one in APGA is not there.
“So, while he has seven governors working for him, we have 23 working for us and we have five who are neutral. You know when you are voting, when I was in ILO, you vote for, against or you abstain. Abstinence is as good as voting against.
“So, however you look at it, our campaign is going smoothly and the message is very clear. It’s very clear; it cannot be better. You saw us on Thursday in Owerri. For me that was perhaps one of the best outings we’ve had. You listened to our candidate, you listened to those who spoke in Owerri, some of them offered to contribute towards the campaign because their concerns have been addressed by the APC candidate, because election is about interest; whoever will address your interests, not religious sentiments, not ethnic sentiments, because hunger doesn’t have religious affiliations; unemployment, do they have religious affiliation, whoever will address your concerns, if you are a trader, whoever would make sure that the ports work more efficiently, you don’t have to pay toll to all kinds of people; that is the kind of person you want.
“Government is about providing those assets. We must talk about enabling environment and our candidate has laid out how he will do it,” he said.
Stay ahead with the latest updates! Join The ConclaveNG on WhatsApp and Telegram for real-time news alerts, breaking stories, and exclusive content delivered straight to your phone. Don’t miss a headline — subscribe now!
