AN All Progressives Congress (APC) stalwart and legislative aide to the President of the Senate, Honourable Femi Odere says only a party in a position of weakness raises false plot to compromise election. KUNLE ODEREMI brings the excerpts of the interview.
The Ondo State governorship election comes up in about 72 hours or so. How set is the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the election in terms of internal cohesion, logistics and other plans?
I will put this question in the realm of rhetoric rather than substantive for a number of reasons. I can tell you for a fact that there’s no party in this contest for the governorship race that’s better prepared for this election than the APC. Our preparation for this election did not start when the Independent National electoral Commission (INEC) blew the whistle about three months ago. It started as far back as a year, if not more because we not only want to win on November 16 but win big that the main opposition party candidate would see the futility of challenging the results in the courts. That’s our overarching objective. And to achieve this objective, long-term planning and preparation must be involved.
On the issue of the party’s internal cohesion, that’s a mute point at this time because you would recall that virtually all the major stakeholders and aspirants during the primary has already collapsed their structures and openly pledged their loyalty and support for Lucky Aiyedatiwa, the APC candidate. To drive this point home, it was just this past Sunday that Senator Jimoh Ibrahim hosted his Aseyori group, which is actually a movement, of more than 5, 000. And this is just a fraction of the members that came to Igbotako, his hometown with the national chairman, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje and the deputy governor in attendance. There, the senator instructed members of this group across the 18 local governments to vote en masse for APC on Election Day with substantial, mouth-watering logistics by the senator. What more can the party ask for? This coming election is ours to lose.
Opposition parties claim that the APC has failed Ondo State people in terms of good governance and keeping to its pre-elections pledges over the years. The party is accused of planning to shortchange voters at the poll, that is, by rigging or compromising the process this time. How justified are those allegations?
What’s their definition of good governance that the people of Ondo State did not see? What are the election pledges APC made that it’s not keeping? How can a party that all the polls, even including members of the main opposition party, have predicted it’s going to win the election, would want to rig and compromise the election? Does that make any sense? You don’t have to be a political scientist to know that it’s the party whose chances are very low and it’s desperate that would want to compromise the election. We’re not perturbed by jejune accusations.
PDP is confident about victory. It led the campaign that led to the change of leadership at the Ondo INEC. Isn›t this a sufficient boost to the confidence of the opposition and a bad omen for APC in its quest to retain power on November 16 election?
If there was a change of leadership at the Ondo INEC, it’s another attestation that the APC wants to win fair and square. And we will, not because PDP cried wolf when actually there was none to shaken. What we’re doing is removing all and any real and perceived encumbrances that may be used against us to challenge the imminent shellacking of the opposition in the courts as I said earlier. This election is already settled no matter how you dice it. Ondo State will remain an APC state into the foreseeable future. A vote for any parties’ candidates other than Lucky Aiyedatiwa of APC is a wasted vote. I can tell you that for free my brother.
The Edo State governorship election was trailed by accusations and counter-accusations and the INEC says it has learnt from the September poll, so the commission has promised an improved exercise in Ondo on Saturday. What does this portend for the APC as it was at the centre of controversy in Edo, coupled with the claim by the opposition that the APC was the main beneficiary of the issues that threw up the controversy?
It is normal for accusations and counter-accusations to fly around after a contest for power in any clime. And Nigeria cannot be an exception especially when our democracy is still in the teething stage and yet to mature. If INEC says it has learned one or two things from the September poll in Edo, it doesn’t necessarily mean it did anything wrong that compromised the result of the election. Rather, what it is saying, in my view, is that one or two things had been identified from the Edo electoral contest that would further strengthen the integrity of electoral outcomes. Electoral outcomes in a representative democracy are works in progress. So, it portends nothing negative for our party.
The opposition party also said they have put their house in order, so the APC should brace up for defeat; that the ruling party is beset with internal crisis and subdued anger despite the recent reconciliation efforts made by the national leadership. To what extent are these claims going to jeopardize the chances of your party?
When the opposition party says that the APC should brace itself for defeat because it has put its obviously crumbling house in order, it is laughable. It is like a welter-weight champion saying that because he has trained, crossed all the Ts and dotted all the Is, he’s now ready to defeat a heavyweight champion. I told you earlier that there’s no internal crisis in the state’s APC and I don’t know what you mean by subdued anger when all the stakeholders have joined forces with Governor Aiyedatiwa with their supporters. All I can say here is that they can continue to amuse themselves with their delusion.
How do you think the sustained public outcry over the negative effects of the APC administration going to affect the ruling APC at the election? There is socioeconomic hardship across the country because of the public claim that government policies lack a human face.
When you say “negative effects of the APC administration,” I take it that you’re referring to the Tinubu administration. You see, there’s one thing we must understand. They say “all politics is local.” What this simply means is that the electorate can decouple what they’re experiencing at the local level, which is the state in terms of infrastructural developments, palliative measures and increase in the minimum wage among others in the Aiyedatiwa’s government from the centre.
At any rate, the people of the state are sophisticated enough to understand what President Tinubu is trying to do to reposition Nigeria on a proper and sustainable footing. The fact that APC won in Edo, which is an opposition stronghold attests to this fact. If APC could win in Edo despite having a PDP government, how is APC going to lose in Ondo State where an APC government has been in the saddle for eight straight years?
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