2015: WHY I AM GOING FOR PRESIDENCY - ADAMS OSHIOMHOLE

By Unknown

Thursday 16 October 2014

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The Edo State Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Mr. Loius Odion, Wednesday gave reasons why the state governor, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole, decided to join the 2015 presidential race, explaining that his decision was inspired by the need to rescue Nigeria from its current bondage.

According to him, Oshiomhole  was better equipped to lead the nation with his pan-Nigeria perspective, observing that he has better credentials than the other All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential aspirants also targeting the party’s ticket.

Recently, it was being speculated that Oshiomhole was interested in contesting the 2015 presidential election.

Confirming the speculation, Odion said, “It is not a rumour, it is a fact, Oshiomhole is in the race. But if you expect the kind of jamboree that is currently taking place, where people embark on road show, promising heaven and earth, Oshiomhole is not going to do that. I can tell you he is in the race. And it is in response to the yearnings of well meaning Nigerians that our country needs some body of his pedigree at this point of our history to move Nigeria forward.

“You will even recall early this year when Governor Babatunde Fashola said the nation needs somebody like Oshiomhole as president to change Nigeria. And Fashola as we all know, is a performing governor but he said being somebody that has stayed in Benin City before as a student of UNIBEN, he knows what Benin was then and what it is today. And that is why he said Oshiomhole is a good material,” he said.

Reviewing other aspirants for the APC presidential ticket, Odion said Oshiomhole stands taller in the sense that he is the only one who offers a pan-Nigeria perspective.

“Oshiomhole is going to come in not as a candidate of the South-south but as a man whose face is known in every nook and cranny of Nigeria. That is the thing he is bringing in. His own credential is leadership integrity. As NLC leader, he had the responsibility of leading the workers union, which perhaps is the most cohesive across the country, which cut across all the divides. He had the opportunity of leading that body for eight years and he acquitted himself creditably.”

“As a matter of fact, one will regard him as the most successful labour leader we ever had in post-colonial Nigeria. And after leaving NLC, people like late Chief Gani Fawehinmi thought he should give the presidency a shot but he said well, I needed to start from somewhere.

“He started from Edo State and of course, he is serving a second term as governor. When he came some people said there was a difference between unionism and politics, that good unionists don’t make good leaders, but Oshiomhole has proved them wrong today. He has delivered on his mandate massively in the last six years. So the idea now is that if he is given the opportunity, he will deliver Nigeria from the present bondage that we have.
Odion stated that Oshiomhole’s ability to speak all the major languages was an added advantage to his aspiration.

“If you read his history, he was born in Iyamo in Edo North. He spent part of his teenage years in Ibadan, thereafter he went to Kaduna. His Hausa is even more fluent than his Etsako. So he represents the new face of Nigeria. And if you audit Oshiomhole as we speak now, the people he works with are not people from his locality. Ethnicity used to be a factor in Edo State politics but Oshiomhole came and demystified that in the last governorship election to the extent that he defeated a Bini man who ran against him even in his ward.

“He is coming into the race not as a regional champion, not as a man with deep pocket, not as somebody who lacks experience but somebody with clarity of vision who has the courage to take on vested interests. That to us is the challenge of 2015 and Oshiomhole has all it takes to deliver for APC,” Odion said.

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