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2023: Accord Party’s Imumolen Disagrees With Afe Babalola, Says Money Won’t Win Election

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2023: I Am Well Prepared To Lead Nigeria - Accord Presidential Candidate, Imumolen Says
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The Accord Party (AP) presidential candidate, Professor Christopher Imumolen has slammed the founder and chancellor of Afe Babalola University in Ado Ekiti, chief Afe Babalola (SAN) over his claim that the person with the deepest pocket would win the 2023 general election.

According to him, he disagrees with the elder statesman’s stand about the forthcoming election being won by bags of money.

Naija News gathered that the Accord Party flag bearer while featuring on Channel TV’s Politics Today said Babalola’s position on money playing a major role in the emergence of a winner at the polls is not right.

His reaction follows a claim by the elder stateman that “The 2023 presidential elections is not going to be won by one who thinks he can make the difference.

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Neither will it be the person with the right age, health, education or patriotism.
“Rather, it will be the person who has made money in this country, the person with the deepest pocket that will win the elections.”

Imumolen in his reaction submitted that “With all due respect, I disagree with our most learned elder statesman, Afe Babalola on his claims that the person with the deepest pocket in this year’s presidential race will ultimately win the elections.

“There are several instances, particularly since the advent of the 4th Republic in 1999 where money was never the determining factor in whom became Nigeria’s president.
“Let’s start with the 1999 presidential elections between Chief Olusegun Obasanjo of the PDP and Chief Olu Falae of the then AD.

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“Obasanjo, if we’d recall, won that election despite not having bags of money to throw around. In fact, he had just returned from prison where he had no money or played any active politics before the elections.

“Then, came his successor Umar Yar’Adua. Yar’Adua, we also know had just finished his tenure as Katsina State governor and wasn’t one you could refer to as someone who could, solely on the strength of his wealth, win the country’s presidency.

“Even then, we had more people in the race who could have beaten him hands down were cash the sole determinant of who clinched the presidency. But in the end, he won.

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“Never mind that he said the system that ushered him into power was flawed. The truth is that he won.

“Again, let’s look at the current president, Muhammadu Buhari. We all know that if it came to who had the most cash to throw around, it would have been Dr Goodluck Jonathan who was then the incumbent president.

“Yet, against all odds, Buhari stormed to victory and he is just about completing his eight-year tenure as Nigeria’s president.

“So, these examples tell us that it is not necessarily the man with the deepest pocket who always ends up as Nigeria’s president.

“In this year’s presidential race, I think the people’s genuine wish to see a change from the old ways of doing things to a new one could prove the determining factor, rather than the now outdated method of trying to buy people’s conscience through prodigal spending.”