Obaseki: Atiku, Best Positioned for Nigeria

Gbajabiamila: Tinubu’s Records Stand Him Out

•Atiku’s victory sure at first ballot, says campaign council

Chuks Okocha, Sunday Aborisade, Udora Orizu in Abuja; Adibe Emenyonu in Benin City and Gbenga Sodeinde in Ado Ekiti

Edo State Governor Godwin Obaseki has said the opposition Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar remains the best among the men seeking to Nigeria’s presidency in next year’s election that have the capacity to transform the country.

Obaseki disclosed this in an exclusive interview with THISDAY.

This was just as the Speaker of the House of Representatives Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, has said the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, stood out from other candidates, because of his track record.

Speaking during a meeting with leaders of Community Development Associations (CDAs) in Surulere, Lagos State, Gbajabiamila said Nigerians should vote for Tinubu, because of all the four front runner presidential candidates, he was the only one that had something to show for what he did in the recent past.

Continuing, Obaseki pointed out that the ability to marshal the country’s security forces for intimidatory purposes or influence the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) would not deliver victory to anyone in the 2023 general elections because the game would be different this time.

He explained why the opposition PDP was the country’s best bet in next year’s presidential election.

He stated, “I think, yes, it is nice to have a competition. But I see my presidential candidate winning this election with a landslide victory. The law (Electoral Act)  has improved; it is not about your capacity to mobilise security or to supposedly have INEC rig for you.”

Speaking on the chances of PDP in the election, Obaseki, said, “We are winning, honestly. Don’t forget that I have been in both parties. I mean, I have friends across both parties? Some people call me a rainbow governor. The truth is that, today, everybody knows that most Nigerians accept that the ruling party has failed Nigerians.

“They have not delivered to expectations of Nigerians and, therefore, Nigerians cannot rely on them going forward. We must have a change. Having said that, what are the options? Interestingly, the main option is PDP and PDP is the only real organic party in the country. I give you instances from Edo State.

“PDP governed Edo for about 10 years from 1999 to 2006. When they lost the elections, they were an opposition party for 12 years, but remained a viable opposition. In two years of PDP coming back into power, APC has collapsed till this day.

“APC will not get 25 per cent of the votes in Edo State. I am serious about it and I’m ready to bet my money on it. So, it tells you that PDP is quite an organic party. If you look at it, except in one or two states, there’s not one constituency in this country that has not produced either a PDP councilor, PDP chairman, or PDP House of Assembly member.

“It is an organic party and all it needs is to be awakened. For our presidential candidate, because he has the experience of having been in this party from the beginning since its origin; the party chairman was one of those who formed the party, they understand the DNA of the party and have just come back to reignite it.

“For us, as a party, we have the experience, because we have been here for a long time. We are the only party that’s been here since 1999. Our ability to reawaken our party membership and also the citizens in the face of the very harsh and difficult environment facing them, gives us an opportunity.”

Obaseki spoke on the underlying qualifications of the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, saying, “I was reviewing some data, which showed that between 2000 and 2010, Nigeria witnessed the most outstanding economic growth. He was vice president in that era. He was the chairman of the Economic Council. So, all the great reforms, privatisation, debt relief, he was there.

“Today, we are facing the same challenges and here is somebody who has done it before, who has had experience and you are telling me that he is old. If anything at all, he is more mature; he is more experienced. That is the kind of person we need today, because the challenges of Nigeria are not new.

“We need somebody, who understands where we are coming from. For me, I believe that Atiku is the only person in Nigeria today, who has been so positioned to help us in the transformation of this country.”

On the disagreement with the dissenting G-5 governors of PDP, Obaseki said, “This is politics. Clearly, we all will not always have the same views on issues at the same time. But as long as we are heading in the same direction, at some point in time, hopefully, we will. Our positions will converge. The situation today is not as bad as it is being portrayed to the press. Don’t forget, we are brother governors. We are friends; we talk and we keep talking to our friends.

“At the last governors’ meeting we had a couple of weeks ago, we did agree that we were going to reach out and continue the conversation and we are doing so. The reason I said it is not as bad as it looks is because we are going to overcome it.

“Some of these brother governors are also contesting in this election and they will not want you to destroy the platform on which they are contesting. I believe that as we have these conversations, whatever issues they have, we will trash them out. The important thing is that the PDP will take over this government and rescue this country.”

The Edo State governor dismissed the threat posed by the so-called “Obidients” (supporters of Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi), saying even though they may have something to offer Nigeria, he does not believe they are properly organised or have enough experience to threaten  PDP’s chances.

According to Obaseki, “These are a group of people, who have something to offer Nigeria. They are also riding on the anger and the failure of the current government.

“As for me, are they organised enough? Do they have enough experience? You know, the candidate is my friend, Peter Obi. Does he have as much experience as Alhaji Atiku? Not yet. They will need time to mature. They will need time to grow, but for this election, February 2023, which is less than 100 days away, we will see the end result.”

Gbajabiamila: Tinubu’s Records Stand Him Out Above Others

Meanwhile, Gbajabiamila, has said Tinubu, stood out from other candidates, because of his track record.

According to him, Tinubu had done what none of the other presidential candidates has ever done, when he served as the governor of Lagos State for eight years from 1999 to 2007.

Gbajabiamila said he had been able to fulfil thousands of requests from people in Surulere and beyond, urging the people to all come together, go and knock on the doors and campaign vigorously for Tinubu.

“Today, they say there are three or four front-runner presidential candidates. There was something that I used to say many years ago. I used to say it is not by mouth, it is by what you do; the seeds that you’ve sown.

“So, today, I ask people of all the front runners, they all have records; Asiwaju has a record of 8 years as governor; Peter Obi has a record of 8 years as governor in Anambra; Atiku has a record as Vice President for 8 years.

“When you put their records side-by-side, there is no competition whatsoever, Asiwaju stands tall shoulders above everybody. In his (Tinubu’s) case, Lagos is not even like a state; Lagos is like a country in terms of population, in terms of density, in terms of different people in the state and look at what he has been able to do.

“This election is the one that we must campaign based on persuasion, for us to go out there and talk to those who are still sitting on the fence, who are persuaded based on religion, or ethnicity. Let them be persuaded by records, that is what I want from you.”

 Tambuwal: Vote Out APC all Over the country

In another development, Director General of the PDP Presidential Campaign Council and Sokoto State Governor Aminu Tambuwal called on Nigerians to vote out the All Progressives Congress (APC) all over the country in 2023. Tambuwal said this yesterday in Ado-Ekiti during the inauguration of the Ekiti State PDP Campaign Council and State Campaign Manager Committee.

The PDP campaign director-general condemned the leadership style of APC, which he said had plunged Nigeria into numerous problems without solutions.

Tambuwal, who was represented by Dr. Eddy Olafeso, urged PDP members to work for peace to defeat the “monster” called APC and its beneficiaries in the country.

The event was attended by many members and supporters of the party in all the 16 local government councils of Ekiti State.

Tambuwal said Nigerians witnessed the worst Christmas ever in the country’s history under APC. He charged the voting public to use their Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) to defeat the APC and vote for Atiku and Ifeanyi Okowa in the presidential and general elections.

In his address, Acting Chairman of Ekiti PDP presidential campaign council, Chief Ogundipe Makanjuola, said what was required was the unalloyed commitment to winning the presidential election in the next two months so that PDP could revamp the battered economy of Nigeria.

Makanjuola called on PDP supporters to go out to galvanise support for the party and Atiku Abubakar in the 2023 general election.

“We have been handed a very strategic task, a very challenging assignment, but by the special grace of God, it is not insurmountable, we shall succeed,” said Makanjuola.

Other members inaugurated included Rt. Hon. Tunji Odeyemi (secretary of the state campaign council), former governors and deputy governors, serving and former lawmakers, chairmen, secretaries, Board of Trustees (BoT) members,  state youth leader, and all local government party chairmen, among others.

Ekiti PDP Management Committee was also inaugurated, with the following members: Senator Duro Faseyi, North; Mr. Diplo Anisulowo, Central; and Professor Kolapo Olusola Eleka, South; and Mrs. Yemisi Afolabi as secretary.

‘Atiku’s Victory Sure at First Ballot’

 The Atiku/Okowa Presidential Campaign Organisation, also yesterday, insisted that the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, will sweep the 2023 presidential election at the first ballot.

Spokesperson of the campaign organisation of Atiku and his running mate, Ifeanyi Okowa, Kola Ologbondiyan, said in a statement that with Atiku’s overwhelming support among Nigerians, his victorious outing on February 25, 2023 will shock pollsters.

He was, apparently, reacting to THISDAY 2023 Election Centre, which a few days ago predicted a presidential run off.

Ologbondiyan stated, “Atiku enjoys the solidarity and support of greater majority of Nigerians, who are not captured in the indices relied upon by many of the pollsters in their projections on the 2023 presidential election.

“It is incontrovertible that Atiku will win the majority of lawful votes across the country and garner the constitutionally required 25 per cent of votes in more than 24 states of the federation.

“It is evident that the massive traditional voters of the PDP across the polling units, wards, local governments, states and the six geo-political zones are not distracted in their steadfastness to rescue Nigeria from the misrule of the All Progressives Congress (APC) by voting en masse for Atiku.”

Ologbondiyan also said the army of traditional voters were unrelenting in mobilising the non-partisan voters as well as the undecided across the country to vote for the PDP presidential candidate.

He said it was clear that the candidate of the rival APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, lacked the political muscle and national acceptability to stop Atiku at the first ballot.

Ologbondiyan said, “Our campaign is, therefore, unfazed, knowing that majority of Nigerians across the nation are in consensus to elect Atiku as the next president of our country, particularly,  given his proven capacity, competence, political will and national acceptability to provide leadership at this critical time of our national history.”

The Atiku/Okowa campaign urged Nigerians to remain united and focused in rallying with Atiku in the collective mission to rescue and rebuild the country from the misrule of APC.