By Bilesanmi Abayomi
The candidate of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), Abdulwaheed Omotayo Odunuga, told online media practitioners the reasons why he joined the Kosofe Federal Constituency race.
The NNPP candidate explained his position at his Agboyi Ketu residence to a group of journalists on Friday, ahead of the February 25, 2023, National Assembly election.
Meeting before the news, Abdulwaheed told the group why he joined the Kosofe Federal constituency race: to change the narratives in governance and politics.
He said, “I am actually in the race to change the narrative of governance and politics. I am sure that many of us are not blind to what is happening in our society today. I am very certain that the majority of people are not comfortable with the present situation. From what we currently have, we need to change the narratives. One of the things that have brought us to where we are today is bad leadership and also poor followership. We need to speak the truth to ourselves.
“I believe leaders have a role to play, and followers have a role to play. You cannot have a better society without those two in place. I am contesting to change the narrative in politics, and I believe I have what it takes to change it. I have learned a lot of things from past House of Representatives members, and I am currently learning more. With my experience so far, especially in the public and private sectors, especially procurement and other sectors, I have worked in the bank, in a construction firm, and in the health sector, and I believe a lot of things can be improved. And those things can be improved, especially when we improve our policies and laws. And ensure that those laws are followed to the letter; that is the reason why I am in the race to change the narratives in Kosofe politics and Nigeria,” he said.
Explaining further how he intended to change the narratives, he said: “I am a political activist, and one of the things I have noticed so far is that Nigerians in general and the people of Kosofe have actually lost faith in governance. They have also lost hope in politics. For you to bring any change, you have to bring hope and trust in governance. For instance, a lot of good things President Muhammadu Buhari has done go unnoticed because people don’t trust the government of the day. And a lot of politics have been put in place? Because of a lack of trust, nobody wants to give them a chance. So, we need to bring back that trust and hope for the people to trust us that good governance can be brought back to the good people of Kosofe.
Why I chose the NNPP platform”
He said, “I am highly optimistic that I am going to be able to achieve it. What makes me not contest on the platform of the two parties? First, you cannot achieve anything meaningful when the system is at fault. I see the ruling party and the main opposition party as a faulty system, no matter how good you are.”
Continuing, he stated further, “I always tell people to look at Fashola; everybody believes he is a good man, but has he made the kind of changes we expect him to make because of the system? If you are contesting within the system, honestly speaking, no matter how good you are, it’s going to affect your performance and who you are. And people will, at the end of the day, lose trust in you and who you are; that is the reason why I decided to run on the platform of a new party because they are not having challenges. For me, I see most of our political parties as almost the same.
“It’s high time we stop playing politics with the lives of our people. If there was an independent candidate, I would have gone with that, but I still believe the new party is a lesser evil than what we have now. Right now in the NNPP, there’s nothing like Godfatherism; there’s nothing like what my leader said here whereby the interests of the people will be jeopardized,” he added.
Odunuga further posited that the NNPP conducted the freest, fairest, and most credible primary election process without imposition.
According to him, “It also depends on the type of candidate you are and the process that brought you in. I think that because I contested for the primary and emerged as a candidate, I am not imposed on my people; that’s the reason why you see less crisis in the NNPP compared to the ruling party and the main opposition party.
“Today in Kosofe, people believe the ruling party is imposing a candidate on them, and the same is true for the main opposition party. “So how can they bring their best? when they are already having crises within themselves. And they believe that they got the ticket because of some influence above, and that’s what we are changing. We are candidates that have been elected by the majority of members of the NNPP,” he said.
“Just because people are tired of the system doesn’t mean they have accepted us,” she said, “but the truth is that we have to reach out to them and let them know that we are the alternative, that we can do better than what they currently have, and that’s what we have been doing.
“With the feedback we have gotten and based on what we have achieved in the past in the community and the trust they have in us, we are very optimistic that we will win the election.”
Chances of winning
The chances are bright because one thing that President Muhammadu Buhari has done for us and that we also appreciate is amending the electoral laws. which has given a lot of Nigerians hope that our votes will count.
Bankrolling
On the people bankrolling me I cannot name a particular individual. In terms of bankrolling, it’s a form of support and a public document. We update our people on what comes in daily; we see as much as N500,000 and as little as N2000; those are the caliber of people sponsoring and supporting us.
This kind of funding—actually, I will not call it bankrolling; I will call it support for a project they believe in.
And the major reasons they are doing that are two things: they want a better society, and they believe in our project and that we are credible enough to take over from the current House of Representatives member. So, we don’t have a particular person who can claim that he was the one sponsoring me. From the record so far, I think we have had more than 150 people contribute so far to this particular campaign.
“I don’t keep thugs, and I don’t have the intention of keeping them. because I am one of those who have complained about them in the past. I will not repeat the same thing we fought against, so I don’t have any thugs. As you can see, I don’t see any thugs surrounding me; I’m even going out alone. The only thing that we have done is acknowledge that we have this relationship. The relationship we had with them was one of courtesy.
We have approached a lot of them, and this morning I spoke with some of them.
Sadly, people will want to contest or campaign in a particular area, and the ruling party will be stopping them from carrying out that campaign. And most of the time they are using thugs to do that. Fortunately, this morning I challenged some of these thugs around and said, “Please, it’s high time you change this attitude; these people will just use you and dump you.” That’s the kind of relationship we are having with them to sensitize them to the fact that this country belongs to us. These people you are supporting, if there’s a crisis today or in the next 24 hours, will leave the country. We don’t have anywhere to go. Or are you saying your children cannot be presidents tomorrow? Would you want this kind of thing you are doing to other candidates to also be done to your children if they are contesting tomorrow? So that is the kind of relationship we are having with them to sensitize them.
And you cannot see any thugs going with us to destroy People campaign posters, banners, and billboards. “Anyone that you see is because we have changed their minds about what is expected of them, and I think they are actually waking up to that fact.” Politicians have used them for so long, and now they are beginning to see they also have a role to play and they should not be used for political gains.”
Implications of imposing candidates (APC, PDP)
The NNPP candidate, Odunuga, said, “It’s a very big problem. You can’t assume that this is a democracy; it’s contradictory to what they say or preach. Number one: the major effect You will never get good governance; you will only be lucky. I always use the example that Fashola was imposed on us, and we got the best of Fashola. I am very sure that if he had not imposed, we would have gotten better than what he did.”
He adds, “By imposing a candidate, you will prevent a credible candidate from emerging within that system.
Secondly, you end up with mediocre people who do not have anything to offer, and that’s the major one. And if you have such people, what do you expect them to deliver? You will never get anything from that kind of leader because they are more responsive to people—their fathers, not the community or the people who voted for them.
“And to make matters worse, now in almost all the parties, the ruling party will impose candidates, and the opposition party will impose candidates. At the end of the day, you will be left without an option of who to vote for, and at the end of the day, you end up picking the best among the worst, but this time around at the NNPP, other smaller parties are bringing on board candidates that are not imposed, and we believe if any of us emerge, we will be a better alternative and better option for the people of Kosofe,” he noted.
Campaign feedback and winning the race
“In terms of winning, that’s left to God.” Because I always believe in one thing in life: It’s God who decides who will be crowned at the end of the day and who is going to win the election, but we are very optimistic that we are winning this election by God’s grace. I am sure that all of us are within Kosofe, so I cannot be a judge in my case. I think by now you guys should have gotten the views of the public and not the politicians this time around, because an NNPP member will tell you I am going to win, and the APC will tell you I am going to win. Please, you guys need to help with that feasibility study. But from the feedback I have gotten so far, I can assure you we are winning Agboyi Ketu with a very landslide margin; I can assure you of that. For Ikosi Isheri, we have more than 60% assurance we are winning, and our major challenge is just Kosofe Constituency 1. We are putting everything in place and reaching out.
“You know you cannot be popular everywhere. I want to use this opportunity to appreciate our supporters because they have taken that gospel message from Kosofe Constituency 2 to Constituency 1, and that has been our greatest strength in telling people about us because we don’t have the resources to throw around the way the ruling party and major opposition are doing, but with the help of our supporters and people who believe in us within our community, they have been reaching out on our behalf to the people that have been helping us, and one of the feedback we have seen so far is that people are tired of the system and they want a change,” Kosofe Federal Constituency candidate, Hon. Abdulwaheed Omotayo Odunuga,