Makinde didn’t contribute to Tinubu’s victory in Oyo – APC spokesman exposes

The Public Relations Officer for the All Progressives Congress in Oyo State, Olawale Sadare, speaks with ADEMOLA ADEGBITE on how the party emerged victorious in the presidential election and its chances on the forthcoming governorship election

Did you know your party would win all the 33 Local Government Areas in the presidential election despite the state being governed by a Peoples Democratic Party government?….. Continue Reading

We were very optimistic that our party, the All Progressives Congress, will record a fantastic outing in the presidential election. We presented a formidable candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, as our presidential candidate. We equally have formidable persons of Sharafadeen Alli as the candidate of our party for Oyo South Senatorial district, Yunus Akintunde for Oyo Central and Fatai Buhari representing Oyo North Senatorial who won for the third term. If you look at these candidates I have just mentioned not to talk of the candidates for the House of Representatives in all the 14 constituencies in the state, the APC in the state could boast of the best in terms of individuality, track records, experience and every other thing ascribed when it comes to rating the best candidate. Our party is the best among all other parties and APC is too unique for any other party to handle.

Some people have attributed your party’s victory to Governor Seyi Makinde’s support for Tinubu’s ambition. Did he truly work for APC?

How do you mean? Did he support Asiwaju? Did he ever come out boldly that he was supporting Asiwaju? All this hearsay does not matter in politics. Makinde as he stands today is a member and leader of the Peoples Democratic Party in Oyo State. He has never in time declared support for our party unless there is a video or text where he campaigned for APC or mentioned anything like APC.

We learnt he (Makinde) supported your party underground because of G-5’s grievances with Atiku Abubakar. Are you saying you are not aware that he worked for the party and he can’t take credit for Tinubu’s victory in the state?

How did he work underground? Politics is not a hidden thing, even those who campaigned vigorously openly didn’t win, not to talk of someone who you claimed probably worked underground. Did he sponsor any campaign of APC or make a pronouncement that he was campaigning for our party? He did everything possible to work for his party at the state level but the fact remains that God crowns the efforts of APC in Oyo State and we are grateful that our candidates won the election. We have 14 seats in the House of Representatives, Oyo APC so far has won eight while PDP won four and I can say that we won the remaining two that are pending but the Independent National Electoral Commission had to declare Oluyole and Ibadan South East inconclusive. If you are talking about who takes the credit for the party’s victory, every individual that supported our party deserves the credit. I would rather tell you that we were able to record victory because we worked hard and we had a good candidate in the election.

Do you think your party can replicate that victory in the governorship election because many people believe the governor (Makinde) is strong and he will win?

Certainly, we will replicate that victory on March 11. We have dotted all the ‘i’s and we are optimistic that Oyo State will have the opportunity to be in safe hands again. Our candidate, Teslim Folarin, will dislodge the incumbent and APC will retake the state assembly and place the state on the path of restoration, reformation and repositioning. We can’t afford to be in opposition again since Tinubu has been elected.

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Are you considering an alliance or a merger with other political parties before the governorship election?

Going into alliance with other parties is inevitable and we have actually commenced such with many interested political parties but I can assure you that immediately we won the presidential election, our leaders have swung into action and this is going smoothly as far as we are concerned, so it is a must for us to win and we cannot afford to take chances. I can assure you that by God’s grace, all stakeholders are looking towards the direction of our party and we are very sure that people of the state will not be disappointed. So, we want to use this opportunity to ask all stakeholders even from PDP to join hands with APC to rescue the state in the governorship and House of Assembly elections.

Many people believe Governor Makinde has performed and he is even stronger than your candidate, Folarin, how will you assess his government so far?

How strong is he? Makinde has failed in the aspect of governance. What has he done well in Oyo State? He has not performed at all. Is it in the aspect of security, health care delivery or in the area of heap of refuse on our major streets? People cannot sleep with their two eyes closed and you are still saying he has performed well. The people of Igangan, Ogbomoso can’t say that; Ibadan will say he is the worst governor in recent times. The economy is in a shambles. What has he done in agriculture? The Lekan Salami stadium which he remodeled with N5.2bn is an eyesore and back to its sorry state. Makinde has a team that is very good at misleading the public. If you know of anything tangible Makinde has done for the last four years and you convince me, I will apologise. We were here when Bola Ige, Lam Adesina, Rasheed Ladoja, Adebayo Alao-Akala and Abiola Ajimobi governed this state and we saw the tangible things they did. He has never brought anything new to the governance of the state, no creativity, innovation, nothing! Look at the bus terminal, which was just an avenue to mismanage the scarce resources of the state. What is terminal to the economic development in the contemporary world? The terminal was used to favour the miscreants’ wing of the Park Management System of the PDP in the state. The place is not adding any value to the economy of the state. If you are patriotic and a man with conscience you will know that Makinde has done nothing but more harm to the state than good and we cannot afford to retain him.

We have a governor that had reduced himself to an errand boy among the G-5 governors. In some parts of Ibadan, you will see the picture of members of G-5. What do the citizens stand to gain from that? He claims that he is a populist, what has he done for the average citizens of the state to benefit? He talked about payment of salaries, it is statutory, you must pay salaries. He does not deserve any credit for that. What is the percentage of people receiving salaries in the state? Who will be taking care of other people if he refuses to grow the economy? He did not create an enabling environment for investors to come in. No job opportunities for graduates, and we have a governor who is not concerned. We can’t continue to accept this.

Do you think the G-5 ideology backfired and did it pitch the governor against members and chieftains of the party in the state?

They have seen where they landed themselves now. G-5 took the path to facilitate the collective dreams of Nigerians. If the PDP did not find itself in the crisis, maybe Tinubu wouldn’t have emerged today. So, it was for a purpose. Also, the G-5 governors are naive politically, even their part is cancerous. PDP is not supposed to be in our political system; the party is evil, they don’t mean well for Nigerians so anything that befalls them they deserve it.

When Tinubu visited Oyo State for campaign and he met with Makinde, some people felt they struck a deal for the governor to work for him and he would in turn support his re-election. Don’t you see that happening next week?

Tinubu is too big for any deal with Makinde. He only did what a statesman should have done at that time. He paid a courtesy visit to the state governor, he is a Yoruba man and there is nothing special about that. He did not even stay long at the state secretariat. He is an exposed Nigerian, he knows what to do at any given circumstance. Tinubu can never do anything anti-party; he is the national leader of the party. If anybody outside the APC feels that Tinubu is the best and should be supported, we welcome such individuals…… Continue Reading