Ondo Governorship: Jimoh Ibrahim Ups the Ante, Begins Ward Tours 

  No automatic ticket for Aiyedatiwa, APC declares

Fidelis David in Akure

As politicians in Ondo State begin the political shuffle to pick the tickets of their parties, Dr. Jimoh Ibrahim, senator representing Ondo South and a foremost governorship aspirant on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), would next week embark on a consultation tour of the 203 wards in the state.

This comes just as the APC has ruled out an automatic ticket for the Governor of Ondo State, Mr. Lucky Aiyedatiwa, for the 2024 governorship election in the state, slated for November 16.

Senator Ibrahim, who had completed a consultation tour of the state’s 18 local governments before travelling last week to participate in the World Economic Forum (WEF), was expected back from Davos Switzerland this weekend, to pick up where he stopped, but this time on a whirlwind tour of all the wards in the state.

The billionaire entrepreneur with interests in insurance, banking, hospitality, property, oil and gas, education, and the media, with the local government consultation tours is seen as one of the early birds, presenting his political agenda around key pillars of education, health, job creation and infrastructure.

Ibrahim has plans to extend to the wards the generous palliatives he distributed to the APC executive members and to an additional 10 leaders in each local government. All the 27 executive members of the APC in each ward and an additional 10 leaders from every ward are expected to be beneficiaries.

The ward consultative tours would provide Ibrahim a platform to showcase his achievements in the relatively short time he has been in the Senate, better understand the needs and expectations of Ondo people and outline his vision for the future.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) recently scheduled the Ondo State governorship election on November16, 2024 and the party primaries to between 6 and 27 April 2024.

In December 2023, Aiyedatiwa was sworn-in as governor of Ondo following the death of the former governor of the state, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu and thus, by law, Aiyedatiwa is expected to complete the joint tenure of the late Akeredolu and himself, which ends in February 2025. Besides, Aiyedatiwa is also eligible to contest the November 16 governorship poll in the state.

However, speaking on national television on Thursday, spokesperson of the party, Felix Morka, said members would decide who would get the governorship ticket.

Asked whether APC would offer Aiyedatiwa the right of first refusal on the governorship ticket, Morka said the party has not had such a discussion, adding that the party follows democratic principles.

The APC spokesperson said the party does not give “free gifts” and that “positions are meant to be contested.”

His words: “We have not had that discussion, but we are a democratic and progressive party. We don’t give anything to people; people have to justify and earn it. It is not to us (referring to APC executives); they have to justify their suitability, qualification, or criteria; it is to the people of the state who are our members, who would participate in the direct or indirect primary.

“Whatever preference anyone may have; it is all subject to the democratic decision of the party members who will participate in our primaries. We don’t give free gifts in APC. We contest, compete, and win whatever it is we can get in terms of representation.”