…Says, ‘No anointed candidate for Ogun governor yet’

…Advocates internal democracy among political parties

A former governor of Ogun State, Olusegun Osoba, has said that the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) poses a great challenge to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), come 2019 elections in the country, especially in the state.

He also advocated for an internal democracy within various political parties in Nigeria. He said this on Wednesday in his Ibara, Abeokuta home while playing host to scores of party faithful.

Osoba, who declared that there was no anointed candidate for the Ogun State Governor’s seat yet, however, stressed that any political party which lacks internal democracy would lose out during the 2019 general elections.

Osoba also warned that any party that presents a candidate who is not acceptable to the people at the grassroots would suffer defeat.

He asked all governorship candidates in Ogun APC to take their campaign train to the hinterlands, stressing the need for people in government to align with their party faithful.

The former governor added that the party in the state has not zoned the governorship slot to any area as all interests would be opened to negotiation, including those that recently defected to the party.

Said he, “Don’t use one aspirant to oppress others. The APC as a party has not decided on anybody.  Encourage every aspirants to contest and test their popularity. I remain Baba for everybody be it Yayi, Suraj, Tolu and the rest. I’m not saying you should not support any aspirant of your choice, I appreciate all the aspirants but we must be tactical and fully structured; Don’t call anybody Tekobo, I’m also Tekobo.

“APC has not zoned the governorship seat to any zone, everybody is free to contest from anywhere. Encourage aspirants to move to the nooks and crannies of Ogun State, which of them know where KOMI OBA is, or Osun in Ijebu Igbo? Don’t ignore Ijebu agenda or Yewa, Ijebus are free to contest so also the Yewas, but their must be an agenda which must be examined critically.

“We have challenges to face in APC, we can’t relax anymore. PDP is a great challenge; Don’t just sit down and be doing sitting room, Osoba compound meeting. Move to the grassroots. With Makarfi in control of PDP, don’t underrate them (PDP). Some of our members in APC will move to PDP, Mark my words. Whoever that is a party member without PVC is of no use,” he said.