An All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship aspirant in Ekiti State, Chief Reuben Famuyibo, has boasted that members will resist any attempt by godfathers to influence the choice of the party’s candidate in the 2022 governorship election in the state.
Famuyibo said the party must start respecting the voices of members in tandem with what President Muhammadu Buhari preached that the party must be returned to the rightful owners, who are those at the grassroots.
The former Social Democratic Party’s Presidential aspirant urged APC to play more of grassroots politics to win the hearts of Nigerians.
Famuyibo spoke, in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital on Saturday, while flagging off his campaign offices in the capital city and across the 16 local government areas of the state.
He said he was not relying on his ties with some bigwigs in the party to influence his candidacy, saying this informed why he decided to start wooing party members.
He said: “I am a veteran and experienced politician. I am not waiting for any godfather to tell me to start working, though I respect leadership at all levels, I prefer to go directly to the grassroots.
“I have appointed two persons from each of the 2,195 units and six from each of the 177 wards to start my campaign. Politics is not about money, but about influence and trust and our members knew monetised politics had failed them. They need a governor that will know them to their roots. 85 per cent of the people in APC knew me and my records.
“I decided to open my campaign in all the local governments because I wanted to be close to all the members, that is the best way to interact with them and know their problems. I want to be in constant touch. APC should not be too far away from people.
“I was very young when I contested presidency, so my coming out early was not to disparage leadership, but to popularise APC. That confidence has always been there. I won’t wait for any godfather for me to be governor, because I quite understand that our members would be the ones to elect their candidate.”
Famuyibo described as a farce, the agitations by some Ekiti South Senatorial leaders that power should shift to the zone in 2022, saying the fact that the late Bamidele Olumilua was elected as governor of the old Ondo State had punctured the cries of marginalisation of the Southern people.
“There is what we call Ado Ekiti agenda. No single Ado Ekiti indigene had ruled Ekiti as a governor after Col Adekunle Fajuyi of the defunct Western region, so if Ado Ekiti votes could be producing governors from other towns, why then was the town being denied of the same opportunity?
“To me and many others who knew politics and history, Ekiti South Agenda was a farce. The late Bamidele Olumilua had been governor of the Old Ondo State where Ekiti was carved out.
“Go and check the records, Ado Ekiti was instrumental to the creation of this state. Indigenes of this town played a prominent role in the creation of this state and with our massive votes, APC will win easily if it picks its candidate from Ado Ekiti.”
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