Senator Adeseye Ogunlewe, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, has expressed confidence in presidential aspirants of APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, saying it’s now easier for Tinubu to secure victory at the party’s presidential primary.
Ogunlewe feared that it is difficult to defeat Tinubu and Abubakar Atiku of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP based on their investment in their respective party structures over time.
According to the former lawmaker, this is possible because the National Assembly had passed an amendment of the Electoral Act 2022 to include statutory delegates, in a panic mode, saying it was not necessary at all.
He said, “If you check the 2010 Electoral Act, Section 76 (7), is similar to the final material with Section 84 (8) of 2022, so there was no need for them to panic. This clause has been existing there, but they make things easier now that we have a smaller number of delegates to contain lists.
“And who is going to control these delegates? The governors, so it’s left for these other overnight aspirants, who don’t even know how a governor got there in the first instance; how the structure of the party was established, and then you now go to the primary and say you want to contest. How?
“Bola Tinubu has invested so much in the structure of APC that for anybody to dislodge him, he has to work for another five years. It’s just like Atiku in PDP. How is it possible to defeat him? It’s so difficult because he’s an investor in politics and he has invested in all,” he added.
The former Minister of Works said politicians repay investors because when they are in difficulties, investors must have put in a lot of money to make sure they participate in winning the election.
He said, “As governors, as national and state assemblies members, as councillors, as chairman of councils, if you didn’t invest in them, how do you now believe they will ever listen to you? So, it’s a difficult assignment.”
“If you’re interested to be a president, it’s a 10-year programme, ten years of investment, thorough investment in the party you belong to so that members of the party will know you and believe in you and vote for you. If not, overnight campaigns will not do any good. You’ll just fail.
Asked if Tinubu would leave the APC, should he fail to get the party’s presidential ticket, Ogunlewe simply said Tinubu is not going to lose.
He said, “I don’t think Tinubu could ever lose. If you look at the Southwest, Lagos is 100 per cent; Osun is 100 per cent; Ondo is 100 per cent; Oyo, we share; Ogun we share, so where is the deficiency?”