• We’ll win in Ekiti, Osun, says Bode George
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has vowed to resist any attempt by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to take over governance in the South-West using the Ekiti and Osun governorship polls as springboard ahead of the 2015 general elections.
Already, President Goodluck Jonathan has directed the PDP leadership to reclaim the six states in the zone. But Governors Rauf Aregbesola (Osun) and Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti) have described the directive as a tall order that is not achievable with the reality on ground.
The governors, in separate interviews with New Telegraph, said that PDP would have to march on blood to reclaim South- West. Aregbesola waxed philosophically, using the lyrics of Jimmy Cliff: ‘The harder they come, the harder they fall, one and all’’.
“I tell people that the only way the PDP can win is to kill a lot of people. They have to march on the blood of the people to displace us. Again, God is a God of justice not injustice. You cannot reward good with bad and vice versa,” he declared.
Heeding the president’s directive, prominent figures in the Jonathan administration and PDP met at Chief Olabode George’s residence in Abuja last week where they plotted APC’s fall. Governorship election comes up in Ekiti on June 21 while that of Osun takes place on August 9.
Aregbesola said the APC governors, since coming into office, have touched the lives of the people meaningfully, insisting that “for anybody to aim at disrupting that system, that person must be super-powerful.” The governor declared that the PDP has no chance of taking over from him.
“It cannot be those who have had the opportunities for 90 months but failed to do anything for our people,” he stated. Aregbesola was confident of winning his reelection because “I have the support of a majority of our people for my reelection.”
“We have served them with the way they have never been served in their history. If election is about recompense to the administration, I have won already. I told you that there is no household that we have not impacted positively in this state.”
Aregbesola stated that by his actions, he had started his re-election the very day he was sworn in. He said: “We started campaigning for this election since the day we were sworn in. I do community work with our people every month, through physical exercise -Work to Live.
You see how popular this initiative is among our people; it’s a momentous carnival. I also engage them on a quarterly basis on ‘Ogbeni Till Daybreak’, close to 10 hours of critical engagement. “Lately, we have introduced another one called ‘Gbangba Dekun’, where we are in each federal constituency to take questions, comments and opinions from people. If you add our people-oriented approach to governance, God be with us, I am looking at how they will do it. Jimmy Cliff had a lyric, ‘The harder they come, the harder they fall, one and all’”.
On the criticisms trailing some of his actions and the negative impact, the governor declared that some of his critics are not honourable people, saying he carries no baggage. “These people criticising my government are bad in governance, bad in their relationship. They are not honourable.
“I tell people that I am yet to see a governor either before or now, I don’t know of tomorrow, who has made the people the centre of governance, as much as we are doing. I’m not saying this because I want to sound fulfilled. I am saying this because I want people to know the distinction between peopleoriented government and a government as usual,” he said with the air of fulfilment.
On his part, Fayemi declared that the people of South-West cannot go back to PDP’s slavery. Fayemi said: “They have the people to confront. And the people will never subject themselves to slavery. I doubt very much that Mr. President will drag himself into such dangerous and irresponsible mission.
Many of the PDP leaders are just grandstanding to give credibility to their waterloo they are bound to meet in the South-West. “We have always said that the elections in Osun and Ekiti are totally different elections; they are referendum on the performance the governors and the state of happiness of our people with the government they have.
The elections are not referendum for presidential election in 2015. Whoever wants to turn it to that, they will meet us. “I’m not given to boastful and empty rhetoric, but anyone who loves Nigeria and has seen the kind of development that the South-West has witnessed in the last four years, will definitely want this to be protected and deepened.” The governor said he is not nursing any fear about his re-election. He said: “How would I nurse fear about them? The PDP is not popular here. Look, we have just completed the registration of our party, the APC. Over 300,000 Ekiti people registered for APC; I’m not talking about the registration of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
These are not fake people; these are people of known addresses, telephone numbers and others. “The total electorate in Ekiti is 669,000. Let us even assume that it is only our party members that are for Fayemi, let’s not talk about people who are not party members, with the figure that you have on the ground, how is it going to happen for the PDP to win Ekiti; unless the PDP is going to walk on the blood of our people and turn this place into a war zone.” Fayemi cautioned Jonathan not to get entangled in South-West politics.
“The President already has a lot of challenges that he is confronting in other parts of the country. Why would he want to get himself into trouble with the people of the South-West? What has he got to lose by his party not controlling government in the South- West?
“The West is a no-go area for rigging. In the short term, they may succeed in rigging; they succeeded in rigging me and Aregbesola out of our legitimate mandates, but what eventually happened? Let me assure you, this is not going to happen this time around. The vote will surely count. “So, whatever the marching order that they have been given, it would be an exercise in futility. Yet they are desperate, but even in their desperation, there is honour among thieves. They should not toy with the people of the West,” the Ekiti governor stated. He advised INEC to use the governorship elections in Ekiti and Osun to restore confidence in the electoral process.
Also, the Interim National Publicity Secretary of APC, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, told New Telegraph that the PDP leadership is only exploiting Jonathan for monetary gains on the pretence of delivering the zone for him in the 2015 elections.
“The truth of the matter is that the leadership of the rag tag army of the PDP in the South-West is simply exploiting Jonathan’s naïveté and ignorance of the political situation in the South-West part of Nigeria for monetary gains and to seek office, position and relevance. “The PDP no longer exists in the consciousness of the people of the South- West. The pro-people projects and people-friendly policies of the APC governors in the South-West has finally buried PDP in that zone,” Mohammed said. However, former Deputy National Chairman (South) of the PDP, Chief Olabode George, confirmed the readiness of the PDP to take over the control of governance from the APC in June and August. In an interview with New Telegraph, he said the PDP is tired of misgovernance under APC in the South-West. “It was an act of injustice that took government from us in Ekiti and Osun states.
Now, we are ready to take what rightly belongs to us. The people are now ready. They have seen the difference between light and darkness. Come this time, the people are not just going to allow them to run away with power and that is why Prof. Attahiru Jega has come up with a solution of one-man-onevote. By next election, we would not accept any nonsense. I am saying it now that whatever it takes, let the votes count.
“We would not just go and say we won’t bother. When you go on competitive mission, you don’t take anything for granted. We are going to plan and we are going to fight like we had done before. We would not take them for granted,” George said.
Source: News Telegraph
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