The All Progressive Congress (APC) Oyo South Senatorial District candidate in the Saturday February 25 Presidential and Governorship elections, Barr Sharafadeen Alli has obtained pledges of supports from members of Ibadan Mogajis at a meeting he held with them on Wednesday.
The veteran politician and public administrator, who is also the Maye Olubadan, as well as being a Mogaji himself had spoken at length to the Mogajis on the merits of having Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the next Nigerian president and his humble self as the Senator representing Oyo South Senatorial District, “Tinubu is a visionary leader who sees so far ahead of others and who is endowed with the gift of identifying talents and building them up. Many of his proteges and appointees when he was Governor of Lagos State are holding federal appointments presently. The Director General of the National Budget Office, Chief Ben Akabueze was a Commissioner in Lagos State under Tinubu”.
“Since way back as
Governor of Lagos State, Tinubu has had the vision for independent power generation. Back then he brought Enron to Oyo State as part of a plan to establish independent power projects all over the South West but the federal government quashed it. If we had been given the opportunity to establish that back then, electricity would have become an asset in our hands by now”.
“Tinubu has four qualities that set him apart as the right kind of leader to take our country forward from where we are right now. Firstly, he is courageous. You are aware that during the period of the APC primaries, between when he came to Ibadan and then headed for Abeokuta some people moved a plan to circumvent him and give the APC presidential ticket to someone else. With uncommon courage, Tinubu spoke out against the plan, notwithstanding that those floating the plan are in the corridors of power. He asserted that he had not made any requests of anybody until now that he has expressed his desire to be president. The plan was thwarted and after the party’s presidential primaries, he emerged with the ticket. Of course, credit must go to the northern APC Governors who stood with him. The same courage was displayed in the wake of the change of currency and the impact that it is intended to have on his campaign and election. The same courage can also be said of his decision to remove subsidies and the opposition he is already getting on account of it”.
“Secondly, Tinubu has shown that spine and the political will to make good policies and see them through to fruition. Lagos transformed from an urban chaos it was into a modern city it is today under Tinubu”.
“Thirdly, Tinubu is very intelligent. He has been gifted with the intellect to make wealth, to generate revenue and see growth where others can’t. He grew the IGR of Lagos astronomically and laid the foundation of the state’s wealth. Today, Lagos is the fifth economy in Africa, while Nigeria is the second”.
“Finally, Tinubu is very good at assembling effective teams. God gave him the wisdom to recognize talents and develop good teams. So many names from those who worked with him in Lagos are holding federal appointments presently”
The next Nigerian president must have all these qualities and Tinubu has them all”.
“Furthermore, our country has a defective constitution where-in a clause, called ‘exclusive list’ has in it the power supply issue, the police matter, mining, and such. In other climes, when mineral resources are found on a land, the owner of the land has a big stake in it and then the central and state governments. But here, any land found with minerals reverts to the federal government and license must now be taken from Abuja to access the resources. Usually, foreigners will get the license, denude the land, impoverishing the owners of the land and carting away the wealth. We need Asiwaju to address these anomalies and he has the political will to persuade Governors to do it. These are Governors that quashed the autonomy of state assemblies simply on their say so, hence the need for an iron willed President. The same applies for the need to have autonomous local government administrations. We already remember the days when local government execute and commission projects, Asiwaju can bring that back”.
“Now, Asiwaju needs an APC National Assembly to work with. If Senators and Rep Members of other parties are allowed to make it to the National Assembly, their parties can instruct them against Asiwaju’s good and developmental policies to thwart his success”.
“Tinubu wants to achieve a lot quickly, hence his request that he wants ranking members of the National Assembly or people with experience and sound track record for the National Assembly. Not people with learner plates. I’m sure you don’t want Oyo South Senatorial District to lose out at the National Assembly”.
“The summary of all this is that I want you to vote for me. I am one of you and I have been holding political offices since thirty-three years ago. I’ve been holding party and governmental offices and I have never been found wanting”.
In response, several of the Mogajis testified to Oloye Sharafadeen Abiodun Alli’s attitude of never looking down on anybody, his humility and respect of all. One after the other as individuals, they stood up to testify of Barr Sharafadeen Alli’s antecedents and made personal pledges to work towards his electoral success at the Saturday polls.
