Former national chairman of the APC, Adams Oshiomhole, has said missteps by the opposition parties had put the ruling party in good stead to win the presidency next year.
Oshiomhole disclosed this to State House correspondents on Friday in Abuja after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa.
According to him, the troubles bugging the PDP were an indication of victory for the APC.
The former party chairman who said he was at the Villa to greet President Buhari, whom he described as his father, said besides the fact that the PDP had made fundamental errors, also pointed at the clear development agenda so far marshalled to various stakeholder groups by the APC candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as another indicator to the party’s winning advantages.
He said the presidential candidate of the PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, had depleted the opposition party’s chances by offending some of those who ought to be major backers of his campaign, citing the scenario with the G-5 Governors, just as he pointed out what he described as divisive campaign strategy, at a time that the country needs all leaders to pursue national cohesion.
According to him, the PDP has now whittled down in influence as it is now left with seven governors running the campaigns with the party’s candidate.
“You now have the G-5 Governors who said the understanding we reached in Asaba, voluntarily, both by PDP and APC governors, they stand by that agreement, namely that leaders must have character and that if you are not yet President and you are not obeying agreement, and Nigerians are talking of national unity you disobeyed the provision of your party constitution, which talks about rotation in order to service that unity and you can go to some parts of the country and say don’t vote for Igbo, don’t vote for Yoruba.
“Those are very damaging statements.
It would have been better if you say don’t vote for this person, Obi, don’t vote for Tinubu, that is fine, you talk to their persons, but when you talk about race; don’t vote for Igbo man. So if he’s Igbo, no matter how good, he’s a bad man in his eyes, if he’s Yoruba, no matter how good, he’s a bad man in his eyes, at a time when we need national unity,” he said.
