The Directorate of Contact and Mobilisation, South South, of the Tinubu/Shettima presidential campaign council has said the people of the zone did not support President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015 and 2019, and paid dearly for it.
As a result, it said the South South did not benefit from from the Buhari administration.
Speaking during the inuaguration of the Directorate on Thursday, the director of the Directorate, Olorogun O’tega Emerhor, however, said they would everything to make sure that the zone votes massively for Tinubu next year.
According to him, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had misgoverned the zone since 1999.
Emerhor noted that the zone is suffering because they did not vote APC in 2015 and 2019.
But under the Buhari administration, the South South occupied the positions of Chief Justices of Nigeria, Walter Onneghen; Head of Service (HoS), Mrs. Oyo Ita; managing director of NIMASA, Dr. Dakuku Peterside; minister of Petroleum, minister of Transportation, minister of State for Agriculture, minister of Health, group managing director of NNPC among other positions.
Emerhor said, “We need to redouble our strength in S/S. 2015 we did not deliver for President Buhari and we paid for it. We must see this as a challenge to deliver South South to Tinubu/Shettima and l say to you we have good products in our Presidential candidates.”
“It is evident to all of us that our zone, the South-South is a peculiarly difficult one with respect to our party. As we are aware, APC only have one State/Governor out of the 6 States in the region while PDP have the remaining 5.
“PDP has retained dominance in this region since 1999 and indeed produced a President of Nigeria 2009 to 2015. While the PDP governors have squandered most of the federally allocated resources to this region, they have managed to continue to pass the blame of the underdevelopment of the region to the Federal government. Indeed, our South-South is a battleground zone.
“It is therefore clear that, for us to deliver for our candidate, we must work twice as hard as other regions and device smart and practical strategies to deliver our mandate.
“Being aware of what must be done, the leadership of your Directorate has been working to put a draft strategy document in place that will outline how we are to confront our zone in order to deliver results.
“Fortunately, our principals, TINUBU/SHETIMA are good products to sell. Their achievements and their manifesto makes our job easy. Our strategy document will be presented in the course of this meeting. We will be seeking further inputs from members during the interactive session in the course of the meeting in order to have a final document. The leadership of your directorate has also decided to set up a decentralised structure that will ensure we deliver the results.
“As you know, crisis crossing the terrain of our region is difficult and costly. To this end, most of our programs and activities shall be State based instead of Region based. Only very few activities shall require all of the region converging in one location.
Hinting that the national directorate is to set up state directorates in each of the six states in the zone, he further noted that the state directorates shall be set up by the members of the leadership from each state.
“This directorates shall have State Directors and other complimentary officers mirroring the central directorate. The State directorates shall be sufficiently empowered and supported by the Leadership in order to achieve the mandate of the Directorate.
“Olorogun Emerhor shall handle Delta State, Chief David Lyon, Bayelsa, Dr Dakuku, Rivers, Hon Samson Osagie, Edo, Senator Enoh/ Chief Orim, Cross River and Prince Effiong Akpan, Akwa Ibom. We are also to expand our membership on a state by state basis co-opting people with capacity in our states that can assist us in our assignment.
“The leadership in each state will anchor this effort consistent with the guidelines that shall be provided. I as Director shall ensure that such members receive PCC approval and appointment,” he noted.
