Otunba Bosun Oladele, a former House of Representatives member is the National Secretary of the South West Agenda for Asiwaju (SWAGA’23). In this interview, he speaks on issues that will dominate the campaigns when the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) lifts the ban on September 28.

He also speaks on the chances of the presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. TEMIDAYO AKINSUYI brings the excerpts:

INEC will soon the lift the ban on campaigns for the 2023 general elections. As the foremost advocacy group for the emergence of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu as President, what should Nigerians expect from you when the campaign starts?


Let me start by saying we thank God for giving us the ticket in the first instance. When I say us, I mean Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and all of those advocating for him as the next president of Nigeria. We embarked on sensitisation to make the ticket possible. But I can tell you categorically that when the whistle blows for campaigns to start, the fireworks will start. Fireworks in the sense of dynamic marketing strategies; dynamic sensitisation moves, and unprecedented campaigns that are issue-based. We have a product that is able to sell itself. Asiwaju Bola Tinubu is a brand that can sell himself. All you need to do is to go online, pick up journals and newspapers, you will see his past achievements and track records. Are you talking about as a person individually, academics, professional background or his exploits as a governor for eight years? Even the stint he had in the Senate is remarkable enough to earn copious mention in the news. So, if we are looking at all these, what more do you need to sell your product as the best presidential material for the country? So, you will see all these coming to fore as we begin the campaigns. The work is 50 per cent done by virtue of track records of the person that we are bringing to Nigerians.Let me say categorically that by the time we bring Asiwaju Bola Tinubu to your doorsteps, you will be left with no choice than to join the moving train.

What are some of the issues that will shape the campaign, especially for your party’s candidate?

Some of these issues are institutions, governance systems, economy, finance, welfare and security. These are issues that will shape the campaigns. There is one key pivot and I want people to mark it vis-à-vis what has happened in Lagos state in the past: that is revenue generation. If you don’t talk about all these issues that I have mentioned, then you don’t have to talk about anything because there are some pedantic issues that people will want to raise. If people will remain that low, then the campaign would have gone past them. You will be digging yourself into a hole by the time you start talking about issues of religion. You will be rocking your own boat by the time you start talking about ethnicity. As a matter of fact, you will be working against your own structure by the time you want to reduce the campaign to personal attacks and personality assassination. Those won’t be the issues that we will campaign about. We will be talking about Nigeria of the next century. Of course, it is this century that will shape the coming one. We will be talking about a Nigeria that will take its position in the comity of respected nations. We’ll be talking about a Nigeria that will go all the way out to realise its potentialities. We have a youthful population which we must harness. We have lands that are rich for agricultural purposes, mineral resources, a vibrant and intelligent population that must be harnessed and put into gainful use. So, these are things that we will be talking about as we prepare for the campaign.

The NNPP presidential candidate, Rabiu Kwankwaso recently said the mood of Northerners is that power should remain in the North. Do you think Tinubu will get the much needed votes in the Northern parts of the country?

Kwankwaso is a northerner. Why will anyone arrogate to him the right to set the mood of the nation? If we are talking about the people that will set the mood of the nation, he is not one of them. He is a senator, Asiwaju Tinubu is a senator; he was a governor, Asiwaju was a governor too. He is a presidential candidate of a newly formed party while Asiwaju Tinubu is the presidential candidate of the ruling party. In the entire northern landscape, in how many states do we have NNPP structures that can win elections? You can begin to use your tongue to count your teeth. So, Kwankwaso is not one of the people that will shape the opinion and set the mood for the nation. If then, he is saying that power should remain in the north, it is because he is a northerner and wants to become president by his own design. If PDP cannot take me, let me form my own party and play my game in my own corner. He has chosen that he wants to be a big fish in a small pond. Kwankwaso himself has said openly that Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has his respect. That alone goes to show that we have a product that Nigerians will be proud of. I believe that the North will support a Nigerian that is worthy. Asiwaju Tinubu is that Nigerian that is worthy at this point in time. That is why everywhere he goes, he has been accepted. Show me any other presidential candidate that has more acceptability than Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and I will show you a virgin in a maternity ward.

You once said that the 2023 presidential election will be a two-horse race between the APC and PDP. Don’t you think you are wrong, given the growing popularity of Peter Obi and the Labour Party as a threat?

What brought the Labour Party into being? The Labour Party is a product of rejection. The man, Peter Obi, was in APGA. He went from APGA to PDP. At a point in time, he retraced his steps to APGA but went out quickly again. In the PDP where he thought he had found a home, he discovered that he was not accepted. The heat from the kitchen was too much for him, so he got out and was looking for a comfort zone. That was how he got into the Labour Party at a dying minute. He wasn’t a founding member of the Labour Party. The same way he got into the Labour Party that is how he will go out if he didn’t realise his ambition. Peter Obi’s emergence as candidate of Labour Party was as a result of deceit and that deception is everywhere. Attempt to play the mind games every time; attempts to work on the sentiments of the people and dropping of fake, wrong and disjointed data, statistics and figures at every point in time. Recently, I saw a video of him telling those around him that ‘ from now on, I will make sure that my statistics is right’. That to me is an acceptance that his statistics have not always been right. Peter Obi is the presidential candidate of the Social Media Party. Quote me. His supporters exist only on social media and in their own minds and they carry inside their brains that Peter Obi will be the next president. The question is, ‘president of where?’ He may be president of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram of Nigeria, but definitely not the president and Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

If we are talking of serious contenders, Peter Obi is not among them and the Labour Party is not among the political parties that will shake the presidential election. Go down the states and look at the governorship candidates of the Labour Party, look at their senatorial, House of Reps and state assembly candidates. At the just concluded governorship election in Osun state, the Labour party didn’t get up to 4,000 votes. Is that a party that is seriously in contention for the presidential election? The answer is no, because morning shows the day. Show me two or three formidable governorship candidates of the Labour Party, then I might begin to reason that it is a third force. But now, when you number the forces in contention and you rank them from one to ten, you can’t see the Labour Party. The 2023 presidential election is going to be a two-party election, strictly between APC and PDP.
https://independent.ng/no-candidate-has-more-acceptability-across-nigeria-like-tinubu-oladele/

Agbado?
For beans or for garri?

Going by the dictionary meaning of acceptability, this man must be high on something...

Even in Ikeja, Tunubu has no acceptability.

See e mouth like Ewa .

Asiwaju goes nowhere .

No key to start the motor

Tinubu the the slayer of far East region::
Note: Do not mention this user

Clinic acceptability or what?

mcmurphy132:
Tinubu the the slayer of far East region::
Note: Do not mention this user

the slayer of pampers and diapers

I didn't bother myself reading this nonsense because I know that everything there na lies and propaganda

For the record, I am from Rigasa Bakin Ruwa in Kaduna state. We hate Tilinbu with our life because he caused this hunger, killings and suffering by bringing in the senseless Buhari because of his selfish ambition. The blood of the innocent citizens that are in the grave is on top of Tilinbu head.

Ode

mcmurphy132:
Tinubu the the slayer of far East region::
Note: Do not mention this user

Ur a senseless urchin tueh on your blocked head

It seems oladele is the same meaning as udele. I don't like it when elders who are supposed to be the moral compass in the society resorts to falsehood.

Every sycophant is hustling for the man's bullion van.

Story story. He is amongst the least

Everyone is desperately cashing out from the bullion vans in order to market a bad product.