“To the opposition, we are ready for 2019. We believe we have a lot to sell to Nigerians. PDP will produce theirs tonight.”
Ismail Omipidan and Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, has declared the readiness of the party to confront the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ahead of next year’s presidential election.
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He spoke yesterday at the party’s special national convention, where President Muhammadu Buhari was formally affirmed as the party’s presidential candidate for next year’s election.
According to Oshiomhole, next year’s election will not be about religion or ethnicity based, but about character, personal integrity and antecedents of the opponents.
He noted that if the PDP, for instance, picks a former governor as its candidate, they will go to the state to examine what he did when he served and present his records to Nigerians to judge.
While insisting that as a government in power, they have a lot to show to Nigerians concerning their achievements, Oshiomhole said that “to the opposition, we are ready for 2019. We believe we have a lot to sell to Nigerians. PDP will produce theirs tonight.
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“If they are former governors, we will go to their states, see what difference they have made in people’s lives in the eight years they were in government. We will challenge them on integrity and past records and personal character.
“I cannot wait for the campaign to begin. If you cannot manage a house you cannot manage a community. If you cannot manage a community you cannot manage a state. We don’t want to be the largest party, but the safest party. And our slogan remains change. Change of attitude, change of character in how we do things.”
Explaining how he survived impeachment as governor, the ex-Edo governor said: “I believe Mr. President is too mild. While not asking him to behave like those who used seven lawmakers to impeach a governor in Plateau and Bayelsa states, I was denied the use of airport as a sitting governor. I was also to be impeached, but had to remove the roof of the assembly building to survive. They laid the foundation for a do or die politics.”
At the convention, the newly elected governor of Ekiti State and Chairman, APC Presidential Primary Election committee, Kayode Fayemi announced that over 14,842,072 APC members in the various states confirmed President Buhari as the sole presidential candidate of the party for the 2019 general election.