The Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde has declared open a two-day workshop for the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP standard-bearers in the National Assembly and state House of Assembly seats, as well as members of the Governorship Campaign Council in the state.
At the workshop held at the Supreme Management Training Centre in Ibadan, the Governor declared that his administration had been able to bring about a paradigm shift in governance and politics in the state, a development which he noted had resulted in the massive development ongoing in Oyo State.
Makinde said his government had learned a lot of lessons and would be able to set adequate priorities for the development of the state if re-elected into office in 2023.
Issue-based Campaigns
He said that the PDP would run issue-based campaigns because as an administration that had been driven by data, logic and science from its first day in office, it would further draw plans and follow the plans.
He said: “We need to understand the shape which our campaigns will take for the 2023 election. I watched the APC supporters on television yesterday and I discovered their own way of initiating a campaign is a walk-show. Our own way of starting is to sit down, strategise, draw our plans and follow the plans.”
Governor Makinde declared that papers for the the Iddo-Eruwa Road contract had already been perfected and the road would soon be flagged-off.
He called on residents of Ibarapa and other zones of the state to re-elect him and also support all PDP candidates in the forthcoming elections.
He noted: “There are areas where we may have made mistakes. There are also some aspects we didn’t prioritise. But I am sure that the Ibarapa people will give us their votes because the paper works on your road have been brought to my table and we will flag it off shortly.
“So, don’t let us see this exercise as a waste of time. Yes, politicians want immediate money before they can engage in mobilisation and all that, but, for us, we are trying to cause a paradigm shift in politics and governance,” Makinde disclosed.
The governor explained that in the 2019 election, his party drew the roadmap for accelerated development of Oyo State which had continued to serve as the compass of development in the state.
He said experts had been invited to speak on the political situation in the state, the strategies to be adopted and the challenges likely to be faced because no two elections can be the same.
He noted that the factors that worked for the party in 2019 are different from what is on the ground now.
Makinde posited that before the end of the exercise, the gathering must identify a representative that would be held responsible to deliver each of the 351 wards in the state to the PDP.
He expressed the desire that all the 51 positions being contested in the state would be won by the PDP.
“What is at stake today in Oyo State is the margin of votes. The last time, we defeated other parties by 154,000 votes. We don’t just want to win but triple or quadruple the votes we had in the last election. We are talking about 600,000 votes between the PDP and other parties and we can do it,” the governor added.
The workshop had in attendance the three senatorial candidates of the party, 14 House of Representatives candidates, 32 House of Assembly candidates, Director-Generals of Senatorial campaigns, local government coordinators of the Governor Makinde Campaign Council and local government chairmen.
Confidence Okwuchi
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