The All Progressives Congress, APC, Lagos State based in United Kingdom, UK, has expressed resolve to ensure the victory of the party’s presidential flag-bearer, Bola Tinubu, and Vice- Presidential candidate, Kashim Shettima as well as Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s re-election in the 2023 general elections.
The diaspora group, led by its Chairman, Tayo Sodeinde, gave the assurance at the weekend, during a strategic visit to the party’s Chairman, Pastor Cornelius Ojelabi, at the party’s secretariat, Acme, Ogba area of the state.
Sodeinde explained that the decision to pay the visit was borne out of the fact that for the first time in history the presidential candidate emanates from Lagos and given their culture in the diaspora shows much concern and affinity with what goes on in the home front, their total loyalty to ensuring a functional country remains sacrosanct.
He added that they have started galvanizing support base for Asiwaju ever since the commencement of the Permanent Voter card, PVC, registration exercise, owing to their firm belief that Tinubu can overhaul the nation’s economy and all aspects of citizens’ lives for the better.
According to Sodeinde, “You will agree with me that those in the diaspora played a huge and massive role in terms of diaspora remittance, those of us that have family, are responsible breadwinner, so we believed it is important for us to be part of the process to have Nigeria of our dream.
“So, it’s being a great journey, we are still optimistic in the direction which our country is heading now.
“It’s been a long journey but yet a very progressive and very encouraging one. It is the first time in the history of our politics or democracy that Lagos State will present a Presidential candidate for our nation and more significantly, the candidate that we have now is somebody that has the capacity that has the experience somebody that has what it takes to turn the situation of the country around.
“He is a progressive father of the nation and apart from that, he is somebody that cut across all the six (6) geo-political zones of the country regardless of what anyone will say, he is a man that has labor for the progressive cause of our nation and is a man that has helped a lot of politicians, a lot of people in the country.
“This time that he is coming out to vie for the presidential office it’s something that those of us as Nigerians should count as a civic responsibility to make sure that it comes to reality, it’s something we should take on board as a duty that is an opportunity for us.
“We want to give it everything we have to make sure that our National Leader Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu becomes the president of Nigeria.”
“We in diaspora believed that there is a need to sensitize, mobilize, and inform Lagosians and Nigerians in the diaspora about how well democratic values are being entrenched here. “
According to Otunba Omotayo, Deputy Chairman of the group, “We have always been there, and we will be there again and continue to do our best for the success of the campaign and the re-election of our dear Governor Sanwo-Olu Babajide.
Jermaine Sanwo-Olu the Senior Special Assistance on Diaspora and Foreign Relations to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu in response to the thoughtful move said “I believe many people in the diaspora especially those who are politically inclined, and savvy will be flying down to support, and I am looking forward to the situation, whereby we can have like a diaspora voter register.
“People who have PVCs in diaspora, we can register online we gather ourselves together, even though we are not allowed to vote so to say in our nation, we are up to (500,000, 1,000,000) five hundred thousand, one million, it is a significant and a critical mass that any political party or politician will take seriously.
“United we can do a lot, but we need to aggregate, collaborate, come together and have these numbers. It is a very important and politically sensitive issue, but it’s one we cannot deny there must be diaspora voting in Nigeria.”
Responding, Ojelabi noted that: “We just need to appreciate what they are doing, this is not the first time they have been supporting our party, and this time around they are here again to give their assurance and let all of us know that this is a bigger responsibility.
“Now that for the first time the Lagos State APC Chapter has been given the opportunity of presenting the Presidential Candidate, they are mindful of that and they came to give us assurance that they want to redouble their efforts in making sure that everything at their disposal resources wise, material wise will be made available for this onerous task and they are really on the ground to do the job until we achieve our desire.”