THE Social Democratic Party (SDP) candidate in Osun State governorship election, Senator Iyiola Omisore, has said that the power to win election resides in the people, contending that the “erroneous belief” in the power of incumbency had been proven wrong since 2015, “is now SDP’s gain.”
He said that the PDP was at the centre in the 2015 presidential election, yet it lost the election, likewise, he pointed at the recent Ekiti State election, where the incumbent also lost out in the governorship election.
Omisore, who stated this while speaking with his party leaders across the local government areas in Osun, at the party secretariat, in Osogbo, said, “SDP is the only united party in Osun, unlike others in tatters,” adding, “what amounted to the losses of incumbents in power owing to people’s rejection for low performance, will be SDP’s gain.”
“Winning election is not about party or where you control. PDP controlled the centre and lost the election in 2015, so, it is not the basis for winning an election anymore, the power of winning resides in the people, and the power of incumbency is already defeated and rejected in Osun State, everybody knows that.
“Apart from being rejected, the membership of the party in the state now is in the tattered remnant, they are in disarray, the political space is bad for them, the democracy is worse for them, the public perception is wrong and the acceptability is zero,” Omisore said.
Speaking on his former party, the PDP, he said the party’s candidate will be a “walkover” for him, as he said he can’t match him in any contest, adding that apart from the candidate, the party is “already divided against itself and a house divided against itself will fall.”
“Taking a look at my former party, the PDP, they are in court up till now, as we speak. And of course, you know they parade the most unacceptable candidate in Nigeria’s history, since 1999, these are issues you cannot contest or doubt. It has never happened to us, especially in the South West.
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“So, the only candidate people are looking up to in Osun State is Dr Iyiola Omisore. Apart from the requisite qualifications, the experience, the integrity and acceptability across the board, which make it easier for SDP as the party to beat in the state, we are better suited than any other political party.
“For instance, we have structures in all the 30 local governments in Osun State, which we didn’t have in PDP at that time. Maybe we assumed we had but we didn’t have it. There is no party like SDP in the state, it is so interesting.
“We were out to fight the PDP and APC before, but the happenings now are turning to strength, and the PDP divided along their lines. So, in the real sense of it, SDP is the only party in Osun State, and we daily attract defectors as the people’s party in the state now,” Omisore said.
Reviewing the state of things in the state in the last four years, Omisore said things have “moved from bad to worse,” as according to him, almost twenty years ago when he was a deputy governor in the state, he said they thought things were not too good, which he said his government made better, but now, he said, “everything is now in comatose.”
“At present, there is no state like Osun in Nigeria in terms of the backwardness in public life and people’s welfare. There is no job, no drug in hospitals, students are no longer going to schools, the economy is bad, all rights are being denied, workers’ salaries, pensioners’ allowances are not being paid, and the retirees are dying of hunger.
“All these are the reasons we must make sure that we remain undeterred in our mission to deliver Osun people from their present predicament, even, as the bible says that, ‘no man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.’
“At this season, if we look back, the sufferings continue, the people of Osun will blame it on our unwillingness to rescue the situation in future, so, this and the desire to restore the state are our motivation to serve,” Omisore said.
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