APC cannot win the south-west, says Mu’azu

Adamu Mu’azu, national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), says his party will surprise the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the south-west in the general election.

In a statement signed by Tony Amadi, his press secretary, Mu’azu said it is a wrong assumption that the PDP will play second fiddle to APC.

Southwest is expected to be the battleground in the presidential race, with APC currently controlling four of the six states, leavings PDP with two.

But Mu’azu is not reading much meaning to that.

He said: “The assumption is that the PDP will play second fiddle to the APC in the southwest battle states in the 2015 general election. They are in for a shocker because the PDP has worked very hard over the past four years in wards and local government areas of the entire southwest geopolitical zone and we are confident the opposition will find themselves in the shades far behind.

“This is because southwesterners are very intelligent people, they don’t just throw away their votes, and they calculate and discern the characteristics of the presidential candidates before they commit their votes. The opposition is behaving as if they had taken pole position, they did not consider the awesome power of the Peoples Democratic Party in grass root mobilisation.”

Mu’azu said Lagos, the stronghold of the APC, was now in the grips of the PDP.

“As soon as I took over the chairmanship of the PDP, I set forth to the southwest to prepare the party for the ultimate fight for the soul of the people. We showed class in Ekiti and took half the votes in the Osun gubernatorial election. Lagos is now ready to give the PDP a chance to run affairs in the state with Jimi Agbaje’s popularity soaring and the schism that divided the candidates were quickly settled via our rapid response unit,” he said.

He added that contrary to speculations, former President Olusegun Obasanjo would not work against the party.

“We have a strong candidate in Oyo in the name of the former senate leader Teslim Kolawole Folarin, while Ogun is essentially a PDP home ground. With our former president and board of trustees chairman, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo there, we believe he will not work against us despite what people assume in the contrary. If you look at it critically you will find that the whole talk about the opposition taking southwest is impossible. The party is still the dominant force in Southwest politics and will not hand that over to another party,” he said.

“I want to thank our foot soldiers in the entire southwest for the successes recorded in Lagos on Thursday and when we shall come back on Monday 12, in Ibadan and Abeokuta, Tuesday 13 in Oshogbo and Ekiti and Wednesday 14 in Akure in Ondo State, we will show the people what PDP has done and will do to deserve the re-election of President Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan.

“His performance in agriculture, power, aviation, roads, railways, sports and the economy itself were outstanding, coupled with the country becoming the largest economy in Africa. Under him, Nigeria won Cup of Nations after 20 years of drought and also won the 4th World Cup under 17 championships, a feat not many heads of state or presidents has achieved in Nigeria’s political history.”