Ondo APC Consensus political development: Olabode calls for calm

 

 

By Steve Ovirih.

 

 

A voice of appeal for calm has gone out to all the rank and file of Ondo State All Progressives Congress, APC over the high wired politics of consensus trending in the party ahead of the APC Primaries coming up in May. Raising this call for calm is Mr. Olabode Omoyele, an APC stalwart from Ondo South Senatorial District.

 

The Igbotako born APC Stakeholder, Olabode Omoyele, gave this charge in an exclusive chat with newsmen on his reaction to the development.

 

Olabode called on aspiring members of the party for House of Reps and Senate particularly and House of Assembly hopefuls to put the party first in their agitation, while noting that everyone who thinks he or she has the wherewithal can aspire for any elective position, stressing however that the consensus approach is meant to moderate the camp of aspirants from getting unwieldy and becoming too volatile to control.

 

He noted that from the North of Ondo down the Central and coursing through Ondo South, there has been full throttled agitation over the party’s resolve to arrive and conclude on the consensus strategy, which the party’s leadership is banking on for a seamless party primary in few weeks.

 

He said in all things about party politics , the party is supreme and the opinion of the leadership of the party is what all members will eventually abide with.

 

Olabode said Consensus candidacy is hinged on projecting the best candidate who will have not just 99 percent loyalty but a hundred percent unallowed loyalty to not just party leaders but ethos , values and policies of the party, adding that ideologically speaking, the consensus approach will bring not just an original party man but an aborigine of the progressive who has never shifted base at any time and who will not be lured by the exigency and expediency of politics to shift base in some unforeseen tomorrow.

 

Going down memory lane, Olabode said Consensus candidacy stabilized the earlier Progressives political parties such As The Action Group , AG , The Unity Party of Nigeria, UPN and even the Alliance for Democracy, AD, maintaining that the likes of Lam Adesina, Oyo, Segun Osoba, Ogun, Bisi Akande, Osun, Adebayo Adefarati, Ondo, Adeniyi Adebayo, Ekiti and the Lagos Generalissimo of AD Governors, Bola Ahmed Tinubu in one way or the other became popular Guber candidates on the order of their commitments to progressive politics prior to 1999 and records bear witness to the fact that they were all dyed in the wool followers of the political methodology which made the Southwest to stand out both during the second and third republic.

 

Olabode Omoyele noted that the process that brought the current national leadership of APC National Working Committee, NWC, during the national convention of the party in Abuja in early March was a seamless process which stakeholders across the 36 states aligned with.

 

He said Ondo State cannot be different, calling on the Stakeholders, the state party leadership and leaders of thought in the party to strive to be on the same page on this sensitive issue so that through consensus, aspirants with massive people based appeal and strength will be fielded at the Polls, warning that Consensus should not be reason for projecting average or mediocrity personages who will not eventually add color and substance to the party even if they eventually win on the strength of the ruling APC.

 

Olabode says the drive to get the Consensus candidates for the Legislative positions should be a symbiotic drive within the triumvirate of The State Governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, the State Executive of APC and major stakeholders and if all hands are on deck while all concerned parties focus on making APC win the General election, there won’t be much hoopla about the outcome of the APC Consensus approach in Ondo State.

 

Waxing philosophical, Olabode said no single hand can wash itself clean as it takes both hands to cooperate to ensure a good hand washing hygiene. He noted that it is the responsibility of all concerned parties to give Ondo APC candidates who will sweep the poll come January , 2027, reminding Ondo APC that it is not just enough to work for the victory of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu as The President while allowing the use of Consensus to put Ondo State APC in disarray.