The South West chapter of the Next Level Consolidation Forum, on Wednesday held its strategic meeting in Ibadan, Oyo state capital to draw out direction for its campaign strategy ahead of the 2023 presidential election.
The group which is a leading campaigner of the All Progressives Congress presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, during the meeting resolved to give its “all” to ensuring the emergence of the former Lagos State governor as the next president of Nigeria in 2023.
In his opening remarks at the meeting, the group’s zonal coordinator, Hon. Popoola Adesina described the emergence of Tinubu as the APC presidential candidate during the APC national convention on May 30 as an act of God.
Popoola, who insisted that it is the turn of Yoruba to assume leadership of Nigeria in 2023, urged members of the group to leave no stone unturned by ensuring the victory of Tinubu in the 2023 poll.
The special adviser to Ogun state governor reminded members that NLCF is an integral part of over 500 Tinubu Support groups across the country, charging them to ensure that Tinubu gets 85 to 90 per cent of total votes in the South West.
Popoola applauded the efforts of the National Coordinator of the group, Barr. Oladosu Oladipo for his resilient and good leadership in nurturing the group to its present level
In his own remarks, the National Coordinator of the group, Barrister Oladipo charged members to see this “assignment” and unique, which must be pursued with lots of vigour.
He recalled that the clamouring for power shift to the Southwest after Buhari’s presidency started in 2017, adding that “since the issue of Yoruba presidency came up, he had never waver on his stand”.
He urged the stakeholders in all the six states of the geopolitical zone to start “organise, organise, organise”
“We should organise by identifying like minds even in other parties, relate with them and encourage them to see the need in propagating our objective”, Oladipo said.
The septuagenarian said Yoruba presidency in 2023 will be a good model for Nigeria, however maintaining the importance of consolidating
voting strength in the South West.
Oladipo called on members to remain steadfast and committed to the group, saying “apart from Northwest, we are next with over 18million registered voters”.
Prof. Soji Adejumo, the national secretary of Yoruba Patriots Movement (YPM) commended the leadership of the group for all their past and present efforts and advised members not to take the assignment lightly.
According to him, “we should not assume that Tinubu is from the South West and relax but ensure that the APC presidential candidate scores up to 70 to 80 percent of the votes cast in the region.”
Olurotimi Adeleye, Lagos State coordinator called for the adoption of a strategy to mobilise the People With Disabilities.
Adeleye also stated the importance of mobilising people with permanent voters cards and not just anybody, who cannot serve the purpose.
In a related development, Mr. Popoola hinted that the group will set up offices in each state of the geopolitical zone to facilitate ease of reaching the grassroots.
The meeting was attended by stakeholders from all the Southwest states, including representatives from Kwara State.
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