PDP bigwigs , party members and supporters will tomorrow, Thursday, November 24 2022 converge on the Metropolitan Square, Ilorin for the party’s first presidential campaign rally in the North Central.
The party’s presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar will address party supporters and other Kwarans at a campaign rally that will be attended by members of the PDP Presidential Campaign Council, governors of PDP-controlled states and other stakeholders in the party.
Director General of Atiku/Okowa Campaign Council in Kwara state, Dr Mahmud Babatunde Ajeigbe told journalists including Team@orientactualmags.com at the press conference he presided over in Ilorin that necessary arrangements had since been made to make the campaign rally ‘hitch-free’.
He also said the security agencies in the state had not only given the go-ahead but had also promised to ensure that nothing goes wrong.
Ajeigbe accused the current administration in the country of failing to fulfill its campaign promises hence the need to vote the APC out of power next year.
‘It’ s rather saddening that close to eight years later we are worse off than we were in 2015.
As we all know , the current APC government has been in power for over seven years now. They rode to power on the promise to address three critical areas: the economy, insecurity and corruption.
It has however become more evident that with the current level of ineptitude and incompetence of the APC regime, the PDP has much more to offer Nigerians in terms of governance experience at managing a diverse country like Nigeria. We acknowledge that there has been a spiral decline in major economic indices, unprecedented poverty level, worsening unemployment situation, increased level of insecurity and an embarrassing level of corruption.
Nigeria needs to be rescued and put on an improved trajectory of growth and we believe that the PDP can carry out this mission which has become inevitable. It is incontrovertible that our candidate, His Excellency, Atiku Abubakar is a versatile and a highly experienced politician, who has the capacity to take this country out of its current quagmire’ he said.
Responding to a reporter’s question, Dr. Ajeigbe cautioned Nigerians against voting along religious and ethnic lines in the upcoming General Election.
‘Present challenges in the country are beyond ethnic considerations when it comes to election matters. Hunger and inflation in the country do not care if you’re Igbo, Tiv, Yoruba, Ibibio or Hausa. What we should look at is who has the capacity, the determination, the interest, history and the track record to deliver in respect of solving the myriad of challenges we are facing in the country.
Voting along ethnic and religious lines means that the problems would remain the same or get worse, more so, it’s also dangerous. It could encourage ethno-religious divides that had become a danger to Nigeria’ he said.
Ajeigbe also said it had become important to vote for a candidate, who understands and knows ‘the dynamics that are needed in trying to resolve issues in a multi- dimensional country like Nigeria’ while arguing that the PDP ‘is the most qualified , prepared and ready for the job ‘ , having done it before and understands the problems and how to get them addressed in shortest and fastest possible time.
Also commenting on the line of argument promoted by some people that Alhaji Atiku Abubakar had never been the main pilot but rather a co-pilot unlike Mr Peter Obi and Asiwaju Tinubu, who had served as governors, Ajeigbe asserted that the former Vice President has gotten the needed experience and also remains the best man for the job.
‘ One thing you can’t take away from our candidate is that the successes of the Obasanjo administration was largely tied to his being the chairman of the National Economic Council, which was what laid the foundations for the growth attained during the eight years of the Obasanjo administration which was what Yaradua and Jonathan built on . Now, we need to look at the economy, where was it then? Lagos being the 2nd biggest economy in Africa. Nigeria, 2nd largest in Africa, and all that. All these things were due to many factors . All these Paris Club negotiations and all. So Atiku comes with cognate, versatile experience. Please, let’s take note, a chief executive at the state level and the chief operating officer at the federal level are two kettles of fish. The state and how it operates is quite different from the federal government.
So we’re talking about who has the most experience at the federal level, it’s Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, being vice president for eight years. We also know as a fact that when you talk about politics and experience, he has the biggest mix. Today in Nigeria, when you remove the first generation politicians from those that are alive and playing advisory role, and you take the 2nd generation politicians who are alive today and are active, he is someone that cuts across all these people and has been consistent in his quest to succeed and become the president of Nigeria.
Because of the legacy he wants to leave for people to see. When you talk about experience, you need to look at it in terms of what cognate experience do people bring to the table. Also, Nigeria requires many solutions that would in actual sense need political angle. And if you don’t have that level of understanding of the political climate of this country how will you do it?
Our candidate relates with the Igbo people, the Fulani people, he relates with the Yoruba people. I’m not talking about having in-laws only, I’m also talking about having friends across the country. He’s a pan-Nigeria, and he’s a private sector champion. The BPP process of 8 years of Obasanjo was taken care of by Atiku and all these are important.
He’s head and shoulders above others, he’s miles ahead of other presidential candidates if you’re talking of experience. I can assure you that his government, insha Allah, will hit the ground running because Nigeria cannot waste any more time with the kind of retrogression that we’ve gone through in the last 8 years’ he submitted.
He also responded to a reporter’s question on Dr Abubakar Bukola Saraki’s leadership of the party and attempts to make a capital out of the issue and ‘demarket’ the PDP at the state level sort of?
‘Well, it all depends on where you stand on the divides and how you see things and the perception you have on issues. I think nationally and internationally, politics is something that transcends family or people. Yes, Sen. Saraki has had control and influence over the political party structure largely through the Saraki dynasty established by our father, late Dr Olusola Saraki but there is nothing strange or unusual about this, there are antecedents all over the world.
Let’s start Internationally, I remember that we talk about George W. Bush snr., and George W. Bush jnr Father and son. He had even been the governor before becoming president. I think if I can remember, at some point in time, when he was the governor, his father was the president. Talking about the Kennedy’s. He was the president, his brother was attorney -general. There are quite a number of other countries where this had happened. I think the question to ask is , are they capable? Are they competent? Let’s come to the national level. Quite a number of states have what you can describe as people that have relationships with the political leaders of the respective states. Take for example, Kano state, Sen. Kwankwaso’s governorship candidate, in not only this election under the NNPP, but the previous election too under the PDP, is his son-in-law. We know that in Jigawa state, we have our highly respected father, His Excellency, Sule Lamido having one of his children running for governor. It doesn’t take anything out if it is believed that they have the capacity to deliver .
We have several other areas, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu controls quite a sphere in Lagos state. His wife is a third-term senator. Tinubu himself was also a senator. He’s been a governor and he decides things there. So it is not out of place when you see such things getting recorded but what does it add and what value ? That should be the questions. Even in Kwara that we are talking about. You’ve seen Sen. Saraki and Sen. Gbemi, she has been a Senator. We have also seen Hakeem Lawal coming out to say he wants to become the state governor after his father had served as governor.
So, in Kwara, there are quite a number of examples that we may be talking about, even when you look at it, the current governor he has run for senate and governor in the past. Even his senior brother, Dr. Alimi Abdulrazaq has also been involved in politics, running for governor and other positions at some point in time. Their father had served as commissioner and had later stood as governorship candidate during the second republic.
Does that now make them a bad family? So what is important that I keep saying is that the ability for the leader to recognize these salient points and try to make sure that the group of people that are together taking collective decisions are able to ensure that people are given quite an opportunity for growth within the system and not stiffen it.
And that is why I said the PDP in Kwara as at now has become more progressive, more dynamic and more open and its decision-making process has been expanded, and quite a number of people have had opportunities to develop in terms of elective offices. Quite a number of young people, quite a number of people aspired and they’ve gotten party nominations ordinarily some people had assumed they may not get these party nominations. So it is a developing process and it will continue to develop.
The important thing is that we’ve identified where the issues are, we’ve identified what we need to do, we have identified where we have issues and where we need to fill in the blanks. These things are being done. I think such people just want to give dog a bad name in order to hang it. Sen. Saraki is our leader but he’s over bloated. People make it seem like it is an aberration. There are so many things and value additions that his leadership brings which is very good and which had greatly assisted the party.
Whatever few areas, like the areas I’ve said, we’ve got feedback on it, we looked at these things and we continue to improve upon it but you would observe that even small parties, that is parties that don’t even have any elected official had rancour before, during and after their primary elections , many are in court trying to resolve some of these issues. So that tells you that you need to have an elder or someone who will be in apparent control and who people believe can resolve issues easily. You’ll see that this role he has continued to play in Kwara State and he’ll continue to do this not only in Kwara, but also at the national level’ he said- Team@orientactualmags.com
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