2019: Group counsels South West to choose wisely between APC, PDP

AHEAD of 2019 General Elections, a group, Progressive Yoruba Youth Congress (NYC), has called on the people of the South West to be at alert and vote wisely and not to jettison what they are enjoying under the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari for what it termed the “far watered down version promised by the Peoples Democratic Democratic Party (PDP).”

National President of NYC, Mr Kola Salawu, made this call on Tuesday while addressing a world press conference at Excellence Hotel in Ogba, Lagos, emphasising that the South-West would not only reject the PDP and its candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar but that it will also campaign and vote for Buhari and the APC.

Salawu vowed that the “South West will not go back to oblivion again,” urging “all good people of the South West must rise up to protect this ongoing progress and support the one who has brought development to the region.”

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“We must also remain politically vigilant. When President Buhari’ s tenure ends in 2023 after he wins the 2019 elections, power will return to the southern part of Nigeria and that is just some four years away.

“We never can tell what will happen then as the highest ranking person in this government from the south is no other but His Excellency the Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo. It may just be his turn.

“We urge all sons and daughters of the South West of Nigeria to be politically awake and choose wisely in the forthcoming elections as the decisions we make will determine if the region will continue to enjoy the true benefits of good governance or we go back to the days of total neglect,” Salawu stated.

Salawu, who recalled that under the last PDP-led Federal Government, the South West geo-political zone was completely neglected, lamented that a region with the second “highest number of registered voters and highly intellectual professionals was denied any meaningful position in the top hierarchy of political office holders.”

“At some point, there was nobody from the South West region occupying any of the top ten positions in the Country.

“Even amongst cabinet ministers, very little consideration was given to compensating the South West geo-political zone with key ministries after missing out of key political offices. You could almost be right if you called the then PDP government anti-South West,” NYC president said.

Speaking further, Salawu said: “Let us not forget that the neglect by the PDP was not only political but also infrastructural. The party for whatever reason barely completed or even carried out any major project in the South West. The Lagos – Ibadan expressway, the busiest in the country was abandoned.”

“The Benin – Ore expressway was equally abandoned, so also was the Oyo- Ogbomosho road, there was barely any federal presence in the South West,” he added, insisting that it was, however, a different ball game under the APC government as politically and infrastructurally, the South West interest had been taken care of tremendously.

The Vice President of Nigeria, he said is from the Southwest, the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representative is also from the South West.

“The super Minister, Babatunde Fashola in- charge of Ministry of Power, Works and Housing is from the South West, as well as Ministers of Health, Finance, Solid minerals, and Communications.

“The Chief of Defense Staff is from the South West, Head of the Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS), Tunde Fowler. That’s just a few of the numerous positions held by the South West under this dispensation,” he said.