ENUGU, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA)- Adams Oshiomhole, former Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), says the party is ahead of the opposition parties in its bid to retain the presidency in the 2023 general elections.
The former Edo State Governor spoke to State House correspondents after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
He cited the troubles bugging the main opposition party, the Peopleās Democratic Party (PDP), as an indication of victory for APC, saying that crisis rocking the PDP will pave way to victory for the APC.
The former party chairman, who said he was at the Villa to greet the President, noted that asides the fact that the PDP has made fundamental errors, the clear development agenda so far mobilized to various stakeholder groups by APCās presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is another indicator of the partyās winning advantage.
According to Oshiomhole, the presidential candidate of the PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has decreased the opposition partyās chances by offending some of those who ought to be major backers of his campaign, citing the scenario with the G-5 Governors.
Oshiomhole also pointed out what he described as divisive campaign strategy at a time the country needs all leaders to pursue national cohesion.
He said: āYou 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 donāt vote for Igbo, donāt vote for Yoruba, those are very damaging statements.
āIt would have been better if you say donāt vote for Obi, donāt vote for Tinubu, that is fine. You talk to their persons. But when you talk about race, donāt vote for Igbo man, so if heās Igbo, no matter how good, heās a bad man in his eyes. If heās Yoruba, no matter how good, heās a bad man in his eyes. At a time when we need national unity?
āSo 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.
āWe have 23 (governors). Now, if you add 23 to five, Iām not saying the five are with us, but we have 23 with five, I guess thatās 28. If you subtract 28 from 36, it means only eight governors, in fact, seven, because the other one in APGA is not there.
āSo, 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.
āSo, however you look at it, our campaign is going smoothly and the message is very clear. Itās very clear, it cannot be better.
āYou saw us yesterday in Owerri. For me, that was perhaps one of the best outings weāve had. You listened to our candidate. You listened to those who spoke in Owerri.
āSome 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 sentiment, not ethnic sentiment, because hunger does not they have religious affiliation.
āUnemployment, 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 donāt have to pay toll to all kinds of people, that is the kind of person you want.
āGovernment is about providing those assets. We must talk about enabling environment, and our candidate has laid out how he will do it.ā