The 2027 general elections are getting nearer, and new excos of the APC have taken over across the states of the federation, it also happened in Lagos State, what should the people expect with this?
What we have been able to do in the APC is to show that we have a real political party that knows its onions. We pride ourselves as a party that has the ability to put things in place. It is a fact that we’re not taking the people of Lagos State for granted as a party that has been in power in the state since 1999.
It also speaks to the fact that we have the cohesion and unity of purpose within our party to move the state to the next level. Let us talk about the continuity that we have in our party to move the state forward. Only seven members of the state exco are new, a majority of those that were in the last state executive still returned to office.
We don’t need to wonder where to start from, there is a continuum, they will continue from where the last exco stopped. You can see a serious party that is ready to put structures in place towards the forthcoming general elections. We thank members of the party and the people of Lagos State for their trust and belief in the progressives party.
Some people said that the APC is jittery, which is why they ensured that the National Assembly that is controlled by the party made provisions for manual recording in the elections in the new Electoral Act instead of making provision for pure electronic transmission of results; would you say they are right?
We are not going to be a ruling party that would be dictated to by the opposition. As far as the opposition is concerned, they think they have the best ideas, but their ideas are full of mischief and landmines. We are so versed to be convinced to literally fall into whatever trap they laid.
Let’s thank the opposition for speaking out their mind on their plans to hijack the process and rig the general elections. What the National Assembly has done as far as we are concerned is the best given the circumstances.
There is no basis for the ruling party to be jittery, there is nothing on ground for us to worry about. We should worry about an opposition that cannot get its acts together, an opposition party that has no membership register, and that has no clear cut policy direction. Nigerians have no time for needless experiments, Nigerians would rather stick to a ruling party that knows its onions, that has a clear cut direction and that is well on course for the Nigeria of our dream.
Nigeria is on its way to full recovery, so there is nothing for us to panic about. The sheer number of tested and trusted politicians that we have is an evidence of this. If you look at the recently held elections and not too recently held elections in the country, it is clear that the APC cannot be jittery.
If there is any panic anywhere, it is among the opposition that cannot get their acts together, an opposition that cannot provide alternative policies or alternative platforms for Nigerians to consider; they should cover their faces in shame for their poor contributions to the Nigerian democracy.
Your party has been accused of intimidating some governors into joining the party, but they said that this will not lead to victory for your party. They gave example of Lagos State, where the APC lost the presidential election in 2023. Your party it is believed has taken Adamawa, the home state of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, by force, as the governor recently joined the APC; they said that you want to make Nigeria a one-party state…
They are just being ridiculous, it’s a constitutional matter, there is no ruling party that has the power to push Nigeria into one-party state. Do you know that the Governors have executive powers, and no matter how big the central government is, it cannot intimidate any Governor into quitting his party apart from personal conviction and the need to align with the developmental agenda of the centre and ensure that the people of his state take maximum advantage of the benefits that accrue from the ruling party.
If Alhaji Atiku Abubakar claimed that his state governor has been intimidated into joining the APC, I think it’s a thing of shame. The least Atiku Abubakar could do is to have the governor of his state in his party.
He could not even convince his son to join the opposition African Democratic Congress (ADC) how much more his state governor. Who else should know you better than your son, but Atiku’s son knows that his father has nothing to offer and that he doesn’t mean well for the country. He felt he should align with the progressives that mean well for country.
Governors were not intimidated and having 30 Governors in the APC underscores the fact that President Bola Tinubu is doing something right for the country, and the Governors have now decided to align with that progressives party and to make sure that respective states benefit from what is happening at the centre, it is as simple as that. If the elections hold tomorrow, the APC would sweep the polls as there is evidence to that.
What does your party have to say about the economic situation in the country as people believe that a lot is happening to the economy and that the APC has not been able to cushion the effects?
That is not true, when you talk about the macro economics, we know that the indices are looking good and the government of the day is not unmindful of the hardship associated with the removal of fuel subsidy and the government is addressing this by providing measures that can cushion the effects on the common man.
The student loan fund, which is unprecedented, is an example, the various social intervention programmes by the Federal Government and the various state and local governments are other examples. It is people that spend more time in Dubai than in Nigeria that would not know that the prices of food items are coming down and becoming more affordable.
Things can only get better in the coming years. We can also not neglect the fact that under President Bola Tinubu, Nigeria has become a big construction site having monumental projects in every nook and cranny of the country. The impact of big projects such as Badagry-Sokoto Road, Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road should not be lost on Nigerians.
These are projects that would have multifaceted impacton Nigerians, it’s only a matter of time. If investors do not drop their money based on sympathy, and everybody believes that there are prospects in Nigeria, then these are the kinds of projects that we need. We have cause to believe in the Renewed Hope Agenda of Mr President and that is the way to go.
On security, we keep having issues of banditry and terrorism all over the place, Mr President recently spoke about state police, but the constitution has not been amended to accommodate this. Also, look at what is happening in Kwara and Kogi States and even in some South West States apart from the killings in the North, what should the government do urgently to address the issue of insecurity?
There is a process to this, we are in democracy, and talking about state police means that there should be a constitutional amendment to address this. President Bola Tinubu has never been shy to ensure that we have state police in place.
We also need the state and local governments to play their part in the issue of security. The opposition should not blow the issue of insecurity out of proportion because the world powers they are crying to have their own share of insecurity. The important thing is that the President is not sitting idle to ensure that this is addressed.
They are doing something about it and President Tinubu told the Governors during the breaking of Ramadan fast with them recently that the Federal Government would do everything possible to bring state police to the fore in Nigeria.
All these and many more are being put in place by the Federal Government as the President is committed to that. Recently, the Inspector General of Police was replaced, the whole idea is to have fresh ideas to address the issue of insecurity. There is no better way to display political will to address this very important issue.
What are your plans for the next general elections?
As a politician, there will be a plan and it will always be to a place higher. There are leaders and politicians who believe that based on my experience and talents, I can also contribute to our development and growth at a higher level. When the time comes, we would put that in the public domain.
