A Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress in Ondo State and Media Director for the APC Presidential Council for Canada, Dr. Abiola Oshodi, yesterday said that members of the party in the state are fully prepared to avoid a repeat of defeat by the opposition Peoples Democratic Party in the 2023 general elections in the state.
Recall that the 2019 presidential election shows that PDP defeated APC in Ondo State after scoring 275,901 votes while APC polled 241,769 votes, making it the state with the highest votes for PDP in the South-east.
However, the Canadian based Psychiatrist and the convener of the Oshodi for Tinubu /Shettima Media Group, in a statement made available to Journalists said ahead of 2023 while APC is united, the PDP is fragmented into shards of small parties and group five renegade governors, boasting that the Party will not only win in Ondo or Southwest region but across the six geopolitical zones of the country.
Dr. Oshodi said: “This is 2023, and not 2019, and the political dynamics of 2019 that made it possible for the PDP to achieve that victory is not in existence today as the internal strife in the APC that existed at the time has been largely checkmated and we have a united house and a united family going into the 2023 national election.”
On the strategies put in place to ensure victory for the party and his candidate in 2023, he said, “house to house, neighbour to neighbour type of campaign that focuses on the building block of our democracy which is the polling units and leveraging on our support group structure nationally.
“For example, many are unaware of the enormous changes that the 2022 electoral act has ignited in our electoral system, thus making ballot snatching a thing of the past or what used to happen in the past where people will just write and allocate figures, now the BVAS (bimodal voter accreditation system), and the INEC election result viewing portal (IREV), are the two game changers that will guarantee election transparency and boost public confidence in electoral outcomes.”
Speaking on Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s position that he will continue with the policies of the current APC government, he said, “the fact that Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu said he would continue with the economic policies of this administration doesn’t mean that he is not going to be innovative and creative in rising to the new challenges that will come up if he is elected the President of Nigeria come 2023.
“For example, the giant infrastructural achievements of the PMB administration in the last seven years despite gloomy global economic outlook are worthy of emulation.
“Yes we have challenges of insecurity and worsening revenue challenges, Tinubu has detailed how he will tackle these challenges in his renewed hope manifesto, and part of this is to expand the security forces and recruit and train more people to ensure the safety of lives and properties.”
On the economy, Oshodi said that Nigeria needs multiple streams of income and blocks all existing loopholes in its financial system, and creates a conducive environment for foreign investments amongst others.
“Tinubu is selling himself and endearing himself to the Nigerian electorates via his campaign train that is visiting the nook and crannies of Nigeria, he’s also holding town hall meetings and engaging in other political activities in order to promote his electoral acceptability to Nigerians and giving message of hope to our people that we can certainly overcome the challenges that we face today if we unite behind him and trust him as the Lagos people did in 1999 and 2003.
“Today Lagos people are reaping bountifully from their collective faith and the collective strength of beliefs that they invested in Tinubu in 1999 and 2003 and this is the cardinal point of the message that we are also selling to Nigerians that the sociopolitical and economic challenges that we are seeing today, we shall see them no more with Tinubu as our leader and President, he has done it before in Lagos State and he will do it again in a bigger space like Nigeria,” Oshodi added.
