The Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde yesterday said the forthcoming governorship election in Ondo State will be a tough battle.
Makinde said the party has learned from the last governorship election, adding, “actually, you learn more when you fail than when you succeed. So we learned bitter lessons.”
The governor stated this during a meeting between the party National Working Committee (NWC) and critical stakeholders of the party from Ondo State.
He added, “For the benefit of everybody, the governorship election in Ondo State is not going to be handed over to anybody. It will be a fight. As PDP, we will fight.”
Speaking on how the crisis in the party in the South West has been resolved, Makinde said, “If, in the past four years ago, we had that division within us that allowed the seat to slip away from us. At this time, we are united and we will stay united all the way to the election. So this is a time for us to come together. We may actually disagree on a few things, but from our own situation in the Oyo States. Yes, we have disagreement, but we’re solving our problems even as we speak. We’re not solving it outside, we’re solving it right inside the Government House.
“So if you disagree, it’s normal. But let us win the Government House and then all the areas of disagreement we will keep addressing it. We can only share success; failure is difficult to share.”
He, however, said that the party will succeed in the Ondo State governorship election, adding, “by God’s grace, we shall be successful in the forthcoming Ondo State governorship election.”
On his part, the acting national chairman of the party, Amb. Umar Damagum, said that “this meeting is part of the fulfillment of the process of the primaries that is before us and we invited you here so that we’ll have an interactive session.
“I want to also reiterate that there is going to be one candidate and I know so many contestants that are interested in this but it’s only going to be one candidate that will emerge. Only one candidate will emerge and this one candidate that will emerge will be very important to us.
“So while we are making this contribution during our discussion, I want us to be conscious and watch our words so that at the end of the day we can achieve our aim.”
