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Fidelis David writes that the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar and his running mate, Ifeanyi Okowa, recently stepped up their nationwide campaign with the launch of the South-West zonal rally in Akure, Ondo State capital

No doubt, the 2023 general elections scheduled for February, 2023 will be the seventh since the country returned to democratic governance 23 years ago and this will give the electorates another opportunity to make better choices.

Parties including the PDP are already strategising on how to win the 2023 presidential poll by stepping up their political campaigns and for Atiku Abubakar and Ifeanyi Okowa, the sunshine state was the first point of call in the south west geo-political zone

Speaking at the event held at the MKO democracy park in Akure, Atiku said he deliberately began his Southwest campaign in Ondo State to appreciate them for the massive votes delivered to him in 2019.

He said: “We have started our campaign rally in Ondo state in the Southwest  and it is deliberate because we want to show you that we appreciate what you have done for us in the last election. You have given us the highest votes in the Southwest and we will never forget you. That is why if you repeat the same thing again, we promise to deal with insecurity, we will also make sure that all the Federal road kinks to Ondo state are very motorable”.

Atiku also promised to set aside $10 billion  to create employment and boost small and medium-scale enterprises to help employment drive for youths and women in the country.

According to him: “We will also make sure that our young men and women are employed, we will set aside enough money to make sure that we empower you. That’s why in our policy documents, we said that we will set aside $10billion to make sure that we provide small and medium enterprises for young men and women to empower themselves. It is our number one priority.

“We will also provide enough fund for education so that our universities shall continue to work perfectly, not the one we are witnessing today. APC don’t care for our education.

On his part, vice presidential candidate of the party and Governor of Delta State, Ifeanyi Okowa, charged the electorates to embark on door yo door campaign in order to give the party a landslide victory come 2023.

Okowa promised that Atiku-led government will replicate his giant strides in the area of economic performance that will naturally boost security.

Also speaking, the national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Iyiorcha Ayu, boasted that PDP is on its way back to victory and rescue Nigeria and put it back on development track.

He said: “Ondo is a PDP state. PDP is coming back to rule in Ondo State. We, as a party must unify. All of you must work together to give us the highest vote. The return of the PDP at the national level is a return of the PDP at the state level. Atiku is your in-law. The country is in a bad shape. You need an experience leader, someone who has done it before. He will unify the country and make life better for all of you.”

In his speech, the new Governor of Osun State, Ademola Adeleke, urged Ondo electorates to vote for their in-law. He encouraged them to embark on house- to-house campaigns to woo voters for the PDP.

Outburst of Titi Abubakar

Perhaps, worried by killing over farmers/headsmen clashes in the North -Central part of Nigeria, North -West, North- East and occasionally in the South -West , South -East and South – South, the wife of the presidential candidate,Titi Atiku, reminded the crowd that there was no need to cast the bad judgment by saying her husband is indeed a Fulani but not a killer, promising that Atiku’s government will provide scholarships to students and end insecurity.

She said, “my people I, your daughter standing in your presence to tell you that my husband has done it before. The last election was won by my husband but we were robbed. My husband indeed is a Fulani but he is not a killer and we have been together. I taught him our culture and tradition, and he is part of us. During Obasanjo’s government, it was Atiku that brought the likes of the current governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, Ngozi Okonjo-iweala and others who did well for Nigeria. Atiku will defeat Boko Haram and provide you with scholarships”

She added that “No Yoruba has ever been a First Lady and if we vote Atiku, it’s a vote for Yoruba. There is hunger in the land, don’t let the opposition deceive you, vote all PDP candidates during the elections”.

2019 Presidential Poll Result from Ondo

The 2019 presidential election showed that PDP defeated APC after scoring 275,901 votes while APC polled 241,769 votes, making it the highest votes for PDP in the South West.

Political experts say results from  Ondo State was surprising as many believed President Muhammadu Buhari would clearly win in the state  given that the incumbent governor, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu is a member of the ruling party but unfortunately, the APC lost the presidential election woefully in the state.

However, it is still not clear how PDP which has only 13 state governors (including the G-5 governors) and is not in power at the centre intends to triumph over the ruling APC in 2023.

The state Publicity Secretary of PDP, Kennedy Peretei told THISDAY that the Presidential Campaign Rally being flagged off in Ondo State for the South West was very significant, a morale booster and evidence that the state belongs to PDP.

According to Peretei, “You will recall that, Ondo State gave Atiku Abubakar the highest votes in the South West at the 2019 Presidential election. It is therefore, not surprising for him to start his campaigns here. The large turn out at the rally to welcome Atiku is also further proof that, Ondo State PDP will deliver convincingly for Atiku again come 2023.

Peretei boasted that despite the incumbency of All Progressives Congress (APC), in the state at the national level, PDP would reclaim the state in next year’s poll. He noted that with the mutual suspicion and antagonism within  APC in the state, victory is sure for PDP.

“In saner climes, the APC would have simply apologised to Nigerians, having failed to fulfill any of the promises made in 2015. Having brought Nigeria practically to her knees, the APC/Buhari government will be recorded as the worst administration in the history of this country.

If they have any sense of shame, they should just beg Nigerians who they have taken for a ride in almost eight years”, Peretei added.

Crisis in Ondo PDP

In contrast, another chieftain of the party in the state who preferred anonymity said the crowd at the rally wasn’t impressive.

He said, “No doubt, in 2019, PDP won two seats for the Senate (South and Central). It also won three house of representative seats. However, there are bigwigs of the party who were absent. One is Mimiko and Chief Segun Adegoke and the Senator representing Ondo South, Nicholas Tofowomo. It shows that there is crisis within the party in the state. There is a group working for Jegede’s candidature ahead of the 2024 Ondo governorship election and that was why some members of the party stayed away from the rally.

“The candidates of PDP for various positions were just campaigning for themselves. I didn’t see anyone using the picture of Atiku. For instance, Ifedayo Adedipe, Agboola Ajayi, Tokunbo Modupe, among other candidates didn’t use the picture of Atiku in their posters. So, they are doing independent campaign. It is like they have abandoned Atiku’s campaign for Jegede and his cohorts. It is a precarious situation for Atiku’s campaign in Ondo State.

According to him, “For instance, former deputy governor, Omolade Oluwateru’s camp was missing in that campaign. He was there as a person but his camp wasn’t there. Mimiko wasn’t there but his candidate for Ondo West assembly seat, Tomide was there. He came in his capacity as a candidate. The crowd wasn’t impressive because people who were supposed to be present weren’t there”.

Absence of Mimiko and his Allies

Though the campaign flag-off was well attended by Governors Aminu Tambuwal (Sokoto); Udom Emmanuel (Akwa-Ibom); Ademola Adekeke (Osun); the national chairman of PDP, Iyiorcha Ayu; National Publicity Secretary of the party, Debo Ologunagba; former governor of Cross River State, Liyel Imoke, former governor of Osun, Olagunsoye Oyinlola; former deputy governors of Ondo, Agboola Ajayi, and Omolade Oluwateru; Senator Ayo Akinyelure among others, but the absence of former Governor of the state, Dr Olusegun Mimiko who belongs to the group of the G-5 governors sent a clear signal to the rally.

Mimiko in October 2021 integrated the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) structures into the PDP at the grassroots level and political experts say, if Mimiko, being the only living former governor in the state is thus, the leader of the party and  his former Commissioner and two-time governorship candidate of the party, Mr. Eyitayo Jegede (SAN), is automatically under him.

However, while reacting to Mimiko’s absence at the rally, the media aide to the former governor, John Paul Akinduro said he was not aware of any PDP rally in the state.

Recall that Mimiko had in a statement in October,2022 rejected his inclusion in the Ondo PDP Presidential Campaign Council list, saying he has not abandoned the agitation for regional equity within the PDP and in particular, making a party member of southern extraction the national chairman before the 2023 election.

The statement read in part: “For the avoidance of doubt and to set the record straight, Dr Mimiko is unwavering in his commitment to the principle of equity, fairness and justice through which he believes a credible push for a PDP victory is possible. He fully subscribes to the agitation by his colleagues and other stakeholders in PDP and the generality of Nigerians that the PDP structure must reflect Nigeria’s diversity, if it genuinely wants to unify a visibly divided country”.

Allies of Mimiko present at the PDP rally  were former Deputy Governor, Agboola Ajayi; a former Chairman of the PDP, Clement Faboyede, a member representing Ondo West Constituency in the state assembly, Tomide Akinribido, Gbole Adegbenro and others who defected from the Zenith Labour Party to the PDP.

It is pertinent to state that just like the G-5 governors, there is no doubt that the implications of Atiku and Okowa going into the election in 2023 without the support of Mimiko in Ondo State might be injurious.

A stalwart of the ruling All Progressives Congress in the state who preferred anonymity claimed that the absence of Governors Nyesom Wike (Rivers), Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu), Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia), Samuel Ortom (Benue) and Seyi Makinde (Oyo) was a huge slap on the opposition party’s dream of reclaiming the country from APC.

He recalled that  in 2015 when five serving PDP governors abandoned their party’s presidential candidate, Dr Goodluck Jonathan and pitched their tent with the then opposition party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), it didn’t end well with the party.

He listed the PDP governors that abandoned Jonathan ahead of the 2015 presidential election as  Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, then governor of Rivers State,  Abdulfattah Ahmed of Kwara State, Aliyu Wamakko of Sokoto State,  Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State and Rabiu Kwankwaso of Kano State.

However, a member of PDP in the state, Mr Ojo Samuel, downplayed the absence of the governors in the Ondo rally, saying it wasn’t the first time the aggrieved governors were boycotting the party’s major event since Atiku’s emergence.

According to him, in September 2022, when the PDP Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) was inaugurated, Wike and his allies, still stayed away and heaven did not fall.

He explained that Nigerians can’t afford to keep APC in power because despite the very high level of confidence a large section of Nigerian population had in the President which led to his victory in the 2015 and 2019 presidential elections, President Buhari’s leadership, he said,  has been characterised by economic hardship, selective anti-corruption war, astronomical increase in price of petrol, administrative lapses, policy somersaults, lopsided appointments, incessant herdsmen’s attacks’ leading to the chronic and unabated killing of innocent Nigerians most especially in North East and North Central, among others, which now cast aspersion and dark cloud on the chances of APC candidates in the 2023 polls.

He also stressed that it was high time Atiku Abubakar and Ifeanyi Okowa moved on boasting that the party win the general election next year without the five governors.