An inaugural meeting of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Southwest was held in Akure on Saturday with the objective of outlining a strategy for winning the 2015 elections in the area, with Ekiti State governor Ayo Fayose reiterating the party’s old mantra that the presidential contest is a “do or die” affair.
The returnee-governor said the party must be prepared to use its control of the army and the police, which it currently controls, to ensure victory for President Goodluck Jonathan at next month’s polls.
The meeting was organized by the PDP South-West co-ordinator, Gov. Olusegun Mimiko, who shared the high table with Senitor Iyiola Omisore, Mr. Kolapo Ogunjobi, Senator Musilu Obanikoro, Governor Ayo Fayose and various leaders from the zone.
Governor Fayose underlined that the presidential election was critical, advising that the party should forget about governorship elections and concentrate on the presidential contest. According to him, once President Jonathan was re-elected, everything else would fall into place and the party could declare the governorship candidates of PDP in various States as it likes.
Minutes of the meeting obtained by SaharaReporters shows that some delegates advocated de-emphasizing rallies as campaign strategy, preferring that the PDP should focus on propaganda aimed at tarnishing the image of the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, General Muhammadu Buhari. Some of the delegates wanted to use the media to dent the image of General Buhari.
In that connection, Senator Omisore expressed support for the extensive use of propaganda against Buhari, joining Governor Fayose in stressing that the all efforts should be mobilized to win the Presidency because the PDP would be nothing without the presidency.
Mr. Fayose disagreed with the propaganda strategy, describing it as a waste of time. Stressing that attack is the best form of defence, he said that the PDP in general and the South-west PDP should be valiant to face the Tinubus anywhere they are.
He underlined that the PDP cannot afford to lose its control of the police and the army, which it will without Jonathan being the president.
On Fayose’s description of the presidential election as a “do or die” affair, Gov. Mimiko, obviously aware that the outburst could be used against the PDP, countered that it should not be a “do or die” but rather a “do-and-win” affair.
One of the decisions taken by the meeting was to set up a number of committees, including Security, Contacts, Traditional, and INEC.
The committee on Security is saddled with the responsibility of working with the police and the army. The party leaders also further tasked the students at both the national and regional levels to monitor various institutions and polling booths to make sure that the election goes in favour of President Jonathan. It was also stated that a national student body had submitted a proposal for a youth conference that will hold in FUTA this month where the South-west students would adopt Jonathan as their presidential candidate.
TEXT OF THE MINUTES OF THE INAUGURAL MEETING OF THE SOUTH WEST PDP, HELD ON 27TH DECEMBER 2014
The inaugural meeting of the southwest PDP was held in Akure, at the Government House of the State (Ondo State).
The meeting was organized by the PDP South-West co-ordinator, Gov. Olusegun Mimiko. On the high table were Gov. Olusegun Mimiko, Senitor Iyiola Omisore, Mr. Kolapo Ogunjobi, Senator Musilu Obanikoro, Governor Ayo Fayose, a governorship aspirant in Oyo State and various leaders from the South-West.
At the beginning of the meeting, the host appealed to all the South-West PDP members and leaders to be united so as for them to be able to gain more votes from the zone. And people were given opportunity to give opinion on how they could get more votes for the presidential election in 2015 and win other positions.
A speaker from Lagos State made a comment that Senator Muslim Obanikoro’s son, Ibrahim Obanikoro, that contested for the position of council chairman in one of the LCDA’s in Lagos State, defeated Sen. Bola Ahmed Tinubu in his area but was not given the position. He mentioned that that they had the key in winning Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and that Asiwaju only claims what he cannot do.
And the speaker further said that they needed the support of the Presidency to do so many things in Lagos State, concerning the forth-coming election.
Also, another speaker from Lagos State emphasized on issue of disbursement of funds for the election. He stressed that funds were always late for disbursement for elections, so they wanted early disbursement so that they could deliver.
While another speaker from another state said they were happy for the meeting because it would foster peace among the southwest PDP members and that they could move on easily.
A speaker from Oyo State laid emphasis on use of the media and said the party should go more on the media attack on the opposition party (APC). He mentioned that effective use of the media was the weapon being used by APC. Gov. Mimiko now stated that they made findings of who were the owners of some dailies and that it was discovered that those media outfits did not belong to members of the APC, and thus PDP could equally hijack the media.
A speaker from Osun State that he had told Gov. Mimiko to help them tell the President to use his power and office to quash Ogbeni Aregbesola before the general elections, so that PDP could produce more votes for the President and that the idea of fighting Gov. Aregbesola would be by going to the Court of Appeal which he said could be influenced to remove Aregbesola. So, he urged the honourable leaders of our amiable party to look into the issue of Osun State.
Discussions now moved on to the strategy that would be used for winning the presidential election;
• Delegates present at the meeting discussed more on campaign that they should do less of rallies, instead, they should embark on full campaign with propaganda that would tarnish the image of APC presidential candidate, Gen. Buhari. And part of what should be used use to campaign against Gen. Buhari in Lagos is that he was the one who stopped the Railway metro project of Lagos State 30 years ago, and that instead of Buhari completing the project, he paid the penalty for breaching the contract of the railway metro line project.
• Delegates present laid serious emphasis on using the media to dent the image of the presidential candidate of APC.
Some delegates maintained that the change that the emperor of Bourdillon wanted to change Nig. democracy to totalitarian dictatorship. Members stated that when PDP had no State in the South-west, the President got good votes from the South-west and now that the party has two States, it would be able to win all the other States if the two States in its kitty are well utilised.
Senator Omisore said in his speech that propaganda of any form shoule be utilised and that all efforts should be mobilized to win the Presidency as without the presidency the party is nothing.
In the speech of Mr. Ayo Fayose, he said propaganda would only waste time and that attack is the best from of defence. He maintained that the party in general and the South-west PDP needed to be valiant to face the Tinubus anywhere they are. He further said we have the control of police and the army and “I CAN NOT AFFORD TO LOSE MY CONTROL ON POLICE AND THE ARMY” and without Jonathan being the president we will lose the control. Further, he said the presidential election is a do or die affair but Gov. Mimiko quickly countered that it should not be a do or die affair but rather a do-and-win affair.
Governor Fayose later said they should forget about all governorship elections and concentrate on the presidential election, that once President Jonathan returns, we could be declaring the governorship candidates of PDP in various States as they like, meaning that the Presidential election is very paramount.
As the meeting progressed, leaders at the meeting put Oyo State in focus and maintained that PDP could get more votes for the president there by begging both Chief Alao Akala and Chief Rasheed Ladoja to align their parties with the PDP since they have no presidential aspirant and there is every need to throw out Ajimobi, Amosun with using militant thugs loyal to PDP.
Mr. Kolapo Ogunjobi representing Otunba Gbenga Daniel said they PDP on ground in Ijebu side of Ogun State and they were grassrooters and that they could deliver with good resources.
Sen. Musilu Obanikoro in his own speech said 3 days after he lost the PDP primary election, that Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu came to him in private which he said was quite unusual of him. He said Tinubu asked him how much he had spent and that he was ready to give him 2 billion Naira and a senatorial seat from APC in Lagos State. He said he refused the offer and stressed that they could just imagine how smart and clever Asiwaju is. He further stated that Cardinal James Odunmbaku (Baba Eto) was almost at the concluding part of decamping to PDP and that even he had even concluded with the presidency in Aso Rock before Asiwaju hijacked him back with the position of Director-General of Campaign of Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode. He said they could see that Tinubu is the smart type. Senator Obanikoro further said he was the only person that could match Bola Ahmed Tinubu because he said he knew his tactics. He further emphasized that with cash in his hand, Tinubu is nobody.
While Governor Fayose intervened by saying that there was nothing special in Lagos and that he normally visited markets in Lagos every weekend and before the people in the market would recognize him, they would have said so many things in his presence that they won’t know. Govenor Fayose further said he was coming to Lagos to teach people the market approach to sensitizing the people on the need to support PDP and dump APC.
After all this, the communiqué prepared sequel to which the press was allowed entry into the place for a brief coverage before they were dispersed again. At the end, they set up various committees on such areas as:
• SECURITY
• TRADITIONAL
• CONTACTS
• INEC etc.
Committee on contacts will meet important personalities to canvass them, they mention people like Jimoh Ibrahim in Ondo, the Ogun people mentioned Sen. Anthony Adefuye as part of the personalities to be visited, and many other personalities.
Committee on INEC would monitor various INEC commissioners in various south-west states and try as much as possible to lure them with money to compromise in favour of our great party.
Committee on traditional rulers would meet up all Obas in the southwest for consultation on the presidential election and use financial gratification to lure them as many of them really need stomach infrastructure, according to Governor Fayose. Governor Mimiko maintained that many of those Obas are actually hungry and with good amount of money they could get them to support PDP.
Committee on security is saddled with the responsibility to work with the police and the army. Leaders of the party further tasked the students at both the National (NANS) and southwest level, state level to monitor various institutions, polling booths and make sure that the election would go in favour of Jonathan. It was also observed that the National body of student (NANS) submitted a proposal for a youth conference that will hold in FUTA in January where the South-west students would adopt Jonathan as their presidential candidate.
Some leaders also talked about APC’s strategy of deploying 10 persons per polling booth and that they were aware of it and stated that all leaders should task themselves to use councilors in all their various booths.
Lastly, the South-west coordinator said the next meeting that would hold in Ibadan which would involve fund-raising for the presidential election from stakeholders of the PDP south-west and the meeting would be used to shake Oyo once again urging that the Governorship aspirant of PDP to be prepared.
The meeting ended with closing prayer from a delegate from Ondo State.
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