Immediate past governor of Edo State, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole has said that campaigns for 2019 general elections will be interesting because his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), will reveal to Nigerians how the alleged looting of the nation´s treasury by the 16 years of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) reign plunged Nigerians into poverty which the APC government under President Muhammadu Buhari is making effort to eliminate.
Oshiomhole, who disclosed this while addressing leaders of the APC in Edo state, predicted that despite the effort being made by the opposition to allegedly misinform Nigerians about the activities of the APC led government, that the APC will win more states in the governorship election and more National Assembly members. He also declared that President Buhari will be re-elected due to his achievements.
According to Oshiomhole who recently received the endorsement of President Buhari and the APC caucus in the senate and House of Representatives to succeed Chief John Odigie-Oyegun as the National Chairman of the APC, “it is our task as party activist to painstakingly explain to our people in the rural areas to understand who dug the hole that led to what we are experiencing today as a nation and the effort by President Muhammadu Buhari to gradually pull us out of that hole to the surface and begin to push and uplift us upward to that level in which every Nigerian will have to say I am a proud Nigerian.
“Poverty is not an act of God. It is the result of our economic history. And when you look at the numbers of how much was stolen under the watch of Jonathan as President and the revelations the governor of Gombe state made, the kind of money that was diverted under the PDP regime under President Jonathan, those monies if distributed by 180 million Nigerians, each of us will have a swollen pocket.
“And we must help our people to appreciate that the challenge of rebuilding a house that was rocked beyond foundation, to build complete new foundation cannot be an overnight work.
What is important is that there is a commitment to refix and the President has broken new grounds which may not have been amplified to a level that the rural people can see them.
“Once upon a time growing up, we were told that the Army´s finances are beyond proud, that whatever a general has stolen, it was for good, you cannot question.
“But this President has subjected the military to accountability. Some persons who were untouchable before are being touched. So, that fight against corruption, I am happy that even other African heads of states under the umbrella of the AU, have acknowledged President Buhari as one African President that has proved his sincerity to fight corruption. And i think even recently the Secretary General of the Commonwealth also had very kind word to say about the leadership of our President on the war against corruption.”
Oshiomhole added that “We are preparing ourselves in getting the truth ready so we can engage. In Edo state, those who participated under the PDP philosophy of share the money, those collected money for either their campaign or their personal interest, they are now being called to account for it.
¨So I am very confident that we will win the next general election, have our President re-elected, have more governors elected under our platform, have more of our party members elected in the states and National Assemblies so that come February next year we will not only form a federal Government we will have overwhelming majority in the National Assembly such that the capacity to govern on the part of the executive will not be weakened by a tight margin in the National Assembly¨ he stated.
