By Our Correspondent
A political group committed to the actualisation of Bola Tinubu’s presidential ambition, South West Agenda for Asiwaju (SWAGA), has taken its grassroots mobilisation drive to Oyo State meeting with Ibadan Mogajis (family compound heads) and Baales (community chiefs) to drive home the emergence of Tinubu as the country's next president in 2023.
Other political stakeholders in attendance at the one- day event held at Ilaji in Ibadan, weekend in the state capital were the Central Council of Ibadan Indigenes (CCII), Oyo State Market Men/women, Agbekoya, Irorun Oodua group, Vigilante Group of Nigeria (VGN), Fredrick Fasheun faction of Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC), and leaders of various political interest groups.
SWAGA 23′ maintained that it is embarking on aggressive grassroots mobilization because it is targeting at least fifteen million votes from the six states comprising the south west geopolitical zone for the APC presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu come 2023, while assuring that Lagos alone will deliver five million votes.
According to the national convener of SWAGA 23, Oyetunji Ojo, a former member of the House of Representatives, the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, will bring an end to myriad of challenges bedeviling the country if elected president.
Addressing the crowd, Oyetunji assured that Tinubu’s presidency will ensure Oyo State gets juicy slots in term of ministerial appointments as well as other jumbo offers that will guarantee adequate representation at the central government.
He assured further,l that Tinubu will replicate his approach to governance in Lagos State where there was no ethnic or religious discrimination in making political appointments.
Reacting to the possibility of achieving a fifteen million votes for Tinubu from the south west alone, Oyetunji said: "As you can see for yourselves, this is a mini stadium capacity, with about fifteen thousand persons seated. And you know this is a gathering of Baales and Mogajis, so if you multiply the fifteen thousand by the number of households and compounds represented here, you already know what that translates in term of votes."
"We all know how Ibadan operates politically, once these people, the Baales, kabiyesis, Mogajis here have agreed to that in Ibadanland, you know it’s already a done deal and that’s the way and manner we’re getting down to the grassroots."
"This is election, this is not about party, this is about the people because we want to go there to govern. This is achievable when we use the right political tools, the right methods, and the right approach in reaching our leaders at the grassroots level, and we’re very sure we will get that number we’re targeting."
"Even their body language is easy to read, a compendium of about ten thousand of them signed, ten thousand Baales, Mogajis signed a compendium. Their body language is very clear, you could see their representatives of all the Baales in Ibadanland saying it was instructed by the Olubadan of Ibadanland to come to this occasion today to deliver his message, there’s nothing more than that, it is one hundred percent."
Asked about possible challenges that may lay ahead considering the political weight of other presidential candidates in the race, Oyetunji quickly dispelled the impression, saying politics itself is a challenge because it is a contest stressing why the SWAGA 23′ has been all out for the actualisation of Tinubu’s presidency come 2023.
In his reaction while also speaking to journalists at the event, the national secretary of SWAGA 23′, Bosun Oladele said, the message to the people in the south western Nigeria remains unassailably clear, maintaining that it is a march towards fifteen million votes from the region for Bola Tinubu.
"As you can see here today, what has happened is an endorsement by the Kabiyesis, the Baales, the Mogajis who are family heads in the whole of Ibadanland, endorsement by the Agbekoyas, the Fredrick Fasheun faction of the OPC, by the Irorun Oodua, by non indigenes represented here, what else can we say? It is the mark of acceptability and new begining, come 2023, Asiwaju will be our president by the grace of God"
Speaking earlier, Chief Dotun Sanusi, who singlehandedly funded the SWAGA 23′ event in Ibadan, urged the people to discountenance the religious connotations ascribed to the Tinubu/Shettima presidential campaign stressing that none is better than Tinubu among all the contenders.
"I have never received a government contract before, neither have I collected anything from anybody. They may call us militants, if they call us militants because of the actualization of Tunubu’s presidency then, so be it but please, take this message down to the very grassroots at every corner of the state that the only person I, Dotun Sanusi can personally vouch for, to end our suffering in Ibadanland and Oyo state as a whole, is Asiwaju Bola Tinubu"
Other political interest groups and stakeholders present at the event, in their separate remarks and submissions, vowed to support their own son who is the only Yoruba in the race, and to deliver bloc votes for Tinubu come 2023.
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