President Goodluck Jonathan and his campaign handlers have redoubled their efforts to get significant votes from the South-West during the March 28 presidential election.
The PUNCH gathered on Thursday that the decision was based on calculations that the zone, because of its high number of registered voters, was critical to Jonathan’s re-election.
A Presidency official told one of our correspondents that that was why the members of the Peoples Democratic Party Presidential Campaign Council decided that Jonathan should reach out more to political, opinion leaders and traditional rulers in the zone with a view to getting their support.
He said that Jonathan and his handlers had therefore decided to use his ongoing visit to the South-West to carry out the task.
Jonathan, who was in Lagos on Thursday to inaugurate four Naval platforms, is expected to remain in the zone till Sunday. He later met with the Yoruba Council of Elders at the State House, Marina, Lagos.
Our source said the campaign team believes that the meeting could easily influence their (YCE ) followers to support Jonathan.
According to him, barring any last minute change in plan, Jonathan will be visiting the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi III, on Saturday.
On the same day, the President will visit the Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade.
He said, “You will recall that when the President visited Ibadan for his campaign, he only visited Olubadan. We have identified the need for him to also visit the Alaafin of Oyo.
“The same thing happened when we were at Osogbo for the presidential rally. He visited the Ataoja of Osogbo. We have found it necessary to visit the Ooni of Ife.
“More traditional rulers from the zone will be reached out to during this period, one way or the other.
“The simple message for these monarchs is for them to support the President’s re-election bid.”
The opposition All Progressives Congress controls three states in the South-West(Lagos, Oyo and Osun) while Jonathan’s Peoples Democratic Party is in charge of Ekiti and Ondo states. The PUNCH had reported exclusively on Tuesday that following the delay of polls dates, the PDP Campaign Council had resolved to begin another round of state-wide campaigns.
It was reported then that unlike the just-concluded campaigns that took Jonathan to about 35 states, about 10 states would be visited during this round for more “penetration and consultations.”
Some Yoruba leaders, who converged on Akure, Ondo State on Thursday to review the recommendations of the National Conference, concluded that a vote for Jonathan would ensure the implementation of the conference’s recommendations.
The meeting by the Yoruba leaders under the aegis of Afenifere Group. was tagged, ‘’National Conference, 2015 Elections and the Yoruba Nation.’
The Chairman of the occasion, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, set the tone of the meeting, saying that the support expressed by Afenifere for Jonathan was not partisan but based on the interest of the South-West people.
He said the vision of a restructured Nigeria was being realised with the convening of the 2014 National Conference.
Adebanjo said, “We are supporting Jonathan because of the consistency of the Yoruba to have this country restructured so that it can develop.
“People are calling for change. I want a change in the constitution of Nigeria. Only a change in the constitution can truly bring about the change that we need.”
The convener of the summit, who is also the Ondo State Governor, Olusegun Mimiko, stressed the need for change in the 1999 Constitution so as to enable the Yoruba nation to grow its economy independently.
He said, “The Confab report, when implemented, will create room for each state to have its own constitution, its own police force, its own prison service. Each state can create its own local government, can build its own airports, sea ports and railways in addition.
In the economic domain, solid minerals that had been the exclusive preserve of the Federal Government since independence, have now been brought to the concurrent list. States can now create employment and develop at their own pace. With all that, it liberates everybody; it opens up the political space.”
Mimiko noted that Jonathan was genuinely committed to transforming Nigeria through the convening of the National Conference, adding that the outcome had proved sceptics wrong.
He said now that those deriding the conference had been proved wrong, they had been scheming “to hijack power so as to throw the Confab report to the dustbin of history.”
In their goodwill messages, the Founder of the O’odua Peoples Congress, Frederick Faseun, and the National Coordinator, OPC, Gani Adams, warned that the National Conference report remained a vehicle for actualising the Yoruba dream of a prosperous South-West.
Others in attendance were Kunle Olajide, Biodun Olujimi, Makanjuola Ogundipe, Femi Okurounmu, Gboyega Isiaka, Jide Adeniyi, Yinka Odumakin and the Minister of State for Works, Dapo Adeyeye.
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