The Osun State governor, Rauf Aregbesola, has ruled out marginalisation of the state by the federal government following the landslide victory of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in Osun in last Saturday’s presidential election.
Mr Aregbesola attributed the ACN’s victory in the state in the federal legislative and presidential elections to the resolve of the people to maintain a government of their own, irrespective of the government at the centre. He stressed that the state would lose nothing for voting against President Goodluck Jonathan.
Describing the state’s position as a courageous one, Mr Aregbesola insisted that the ACN and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) did not enter an alliance before the presidential election. He added that the ACN is a progressive party which could not pitch tents with a party like the PDP.
The governor also noted that the result of the election in the state, where the ACN polled 299,711 votes against the PDP’s 188,409, showed clearly that the party did not support the PDP candidate, Mr Jonathan.
Mr Aregbesola said, “The state cannot be deprived of its share of federal allocation neither could the federal government fail to give us our own share as accrued to other states of the federation.”
According to him “there is nothing like mainstream politics in Nigeria. In Nigeria, what we have is mainstream of corruption, mainstream of distress, mainstream of crisis and mainstream of poverty. Osun people voted against mainstream corruption. It is now period of superlative welfarism. The people of Osun State are conscious of their right and this was displayed by voting massively for Nuhu Ribadu who was the flag bearer of the ACN.”
What Osun stands to lose
But the national vice chairman (South West) of the PDP, Tajudeen Oladipo, said the south west geo-political zone and Osun State in particular stand a chance of losing some of the benefits that are supposed to accrue to them by pulling out of the country’s mainstream politics. He said that the victory of the ACN against the PDP in the state is a bad omen for Osun State.
“No region or state can survive on its own; each state of the country will need the federal government’s attention at one point or the other in a federal state like Nigeria. Therefore, for Osun State to have decided not to go to where the whole country goes; for Osun people to have moved out of mainstream politics as exemplified in the results of the presidential and National Assembly elections, there may be underdevelopment in the state,” he stated.
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this PDP people sef..... And they are elderly fellow... but wen dey talk it is scandalous.... cos osun didnt vote jonathan overwhemingly that has made dem enemy of the state... u could as well put the whole state on trial on the charge of TREASON! Visionless leaders, immoral party.......
ReplyDeleteNigeria would soon attain true federalism not as defined by PDP.
So PDP WATCH OUT!