Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, has assured members of the coalition working for President Bola Tinubu’s re-election that the arrangement will not affect their parties’ chances in the National Assembly and state House of Assembly elections.
Naija News reports that Adeleke, who gave the assurance on Thursday at the inauguration of the Osun State Presidential Campaign Council in Osogbo, said the alliance was strictly about the presidential election.
He also set a target of over 1.5 million votes for the President in the state.
The inauguration drew political leaders and members of the All Progressives Congress, the Accord Party and the Peoples Democratic Party, who have come together to back Tinubu’s second-term bid.
Using a football analogy, the governor described the gathering as a team made up of the best political players in the state.
“Our coalition is solely about Mr President, a man who means so much to Osun State and Nigeria. Our alliance is about the presidential election, in which we have all agreed to support the re-election of President Tinubu.
“In this hall is a gathering of who is who in the Osun political terrain. We have all the strikers, the defenders and the midfielders.
“This rainbow coalition of Accord, APC and PDP structures is superbly potent to deliver Osun overwhelmingly to Mr President,” Adeleke said.
The governor made it clear that the partnership would end with the presidential contest, leaving each party to work for its own candidates in other races.
“As coalition partners on the presidential election, we must remind ourselves that the partnership does not extend to the legislative elections. Members could work for their respective party candidates in senatorial, House of Representatives and state assembly elections,” he said.
Adeleke further revealed that negotiations between the state government and the Federal Government to resolve the crisis over the control of local government councils in Osun were almost concluded.
“Discussion has reached an advanced stage. Our dear state should expect good news very soon,” he said.
He appealed to political actors in the state to set aside past grievances and unite behind the President for the good of the Yoruba nation and Nigeria.
“From the pain of the past, we must unite for the prosperity of the future. From unity in diversity, we must forge a new brotherhood behind our leader, Asiwaju Tinubu,” he said.
The APC National Secretary, Ajibola Basiru, told party members that the President had entrusted the coordination of his campaign in Osun to Adeleke and they must fall in line, whatever their personal ambitions.
“Irrespective of our feelings, irrespective of our ambition, irrespective of our scheming, we must abide by the decision of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to support Governor Ademola Adeleke,” he said.
Making a case for Tinubu’s re-election, Basiru said the President’s economic reforms had strengthened the finances of state governments.
He recalled that when he served as a commissioner in the state, the government depended on loans and overdrafts to pay workers and borrowed from the capital market to execute projects.
The APC scribe also pointed to the student loan scheme, road construction and the reported decline in inflation as achievements worth sustaining.
“I want to plead with all of us in Osun State to come together, work together with our governor, irrespective of our political party, and support him to deliver a massive victory for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu,” he added.
A former governor of the state and pioneer National Chairman of the APC, Chief Bisi Akande, and a former National Secretary of the party, Senator Iyiola Omisore, also called on stakeholders to close ranks to ensure the President’s victory.
They urged party members to support Adeleke in actualising the goal of the coalition.
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