By Giwa SHILE
The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, on Tuesday said the poor masses were President Muhammadu Buhari’s strongest support base across the country.
Oshiomhole stated this while addressing an APC mega rally in Osogbo, the Osun state capital, ahead of Saturday’s governorship election in the state.
The rally was held to drum up support for the party’s gubernatorial candidate in the election, Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola, who was Chief of Staff to outgoing Gov. Rauf Aregbesola.
The party chairman suggested that the president did not need the support of the corrupt elite, “whose only office is their handset’’, to be reelected in 2019.
“Mr President, your strongest based across the country is what Aminu Kanu called the Talakawas of our land; the poorest of the poor, the masses of our people, including the working class, those whole toil before they feed.
“Not those people who make money; the only office they have is a handset and a connection in NNPC before you came.
“They were those who are billionaires without business addresses; they employ no one, but you have chased them out,” he said.
Oshiomhole described the outgoing governor as one of Buhari’s disciples, citing his pro-masses policies and programmes, including putting poor children in school and giving them one meal per day.
The APC national chairman emphasised that no one else had translated the Awolowo Legacy better than Aregbesola.
Late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the first Premier of the Western Region from 1952 and 1959, was noted for his people-oriented programmes, especially introduction of free primary education for all in region.
“It is this kind of people-driven, people-focused, people-oriented programmes that you are committed to, Mr President, are the ones that Aregbesola has done with the able support of Gboyega Oyetola.
“I think our message is clear; these are very trying times for our country, and we need people with competence, not apprentice; we need people who know how to manage finances.
“We people who know how to generate, and that is where I believe Oyetola will have advantage over any other person that is contesting election in the office,’’ Oshiomhole said.
