Oyo 2019: I don’t underrate any aspirant, Olaniyan says

A governorship hopeful in Oyo State on the platform of All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr Raufu Olaniyan, has said the rising number of aspirants jostling for the Government House notwithstanding, he is not underrating anyone.

Speaking with journalists at his office in Ibadan, the state capital, on Monday, the engineer cum politician said to become a governor, one did not need to be a moneybag, adding that “it is not always the candidate that spends more money that wins election.”

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He described all the aspirants as coveting to become the governor, since they were all entitled to it, adding that he stood out among them as the next to be governor of the state.

He said since he declared his intention to vie for governorship, he had been enjoying goodwill of the people based on what he termed his relationship and experience in governance.

Speaking on the clamour of the Oke Ogun zone to produce the next governor of the state, the former permanent secretary in the state civil service said no time was more auspicious than now for the zone to produce, for the first time, the governor of Oyo State.

“What is wrong in 10 local government areas out of 22 local government areas making the state to ask for opportunity to govern the state?

“If we go by sympathy, fairness and equity, Oke Ogun deserves to produce the next governor of the state and the zone will select its best when the time comes,” he said.

The governorship aspirant, however, noted that the fact that Oke Ogun desired the post did not mean that anyone emerging from the zone would be governor of Oke Ogun alone, but that of the entire state.

He said if elected by the people to serve the state, he would hit the ground running, based on his experience in governance and the knowledge he had acquired after his 26 years experience in the employ of the state government.