Nigerians Looking For Alternatives To PDP, APC, We Must Curb It — Gov. Obaseki

Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State has said that there is a level of disenchantment among Nigerians with the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Speaking to a gathering of PDP members in Edo State recently about the aftermath of the Ekiti governorship election where the APC candidate, Biodun Oyebanji scored 187,057 votes to defeat his closest rival, Segun Oni of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) who scored 82,211 votes, Obaseki said it is unfortunate that the PDP came third place with 67,457 votes.

Obaseki said the future of politics in Nigeria is changing and that the many of those who are queuing up to get their Personal Voters Cards are not looking in the direction of APC or PDP but that most of them call themselves Obidients, a name supporters of the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi , call themselves.

“How can PDP, The Party, could not only not win in the Ekiti election, they were not even number two. So, you can see that something is going on and we do not want this to be a trend.

The future of our politics in this country is changing. I do not know whether you are closely watching what is going on and the level of disenchantment with the existing parties.

I am sure that in all our homes here, we have so many people now who call themselves Obidients, I don’t know if you have them in your house. If you ask them which party they are supporting, they would say they are Obidient. They don’t want us.

They are not talking about APC or PDP, they are looking for alternatives and they are much more. You see all of them queuing for PVCs now. They are not looking in the direction of APC or PDP and if we don’t curb this and make our party attractive, I don’t know what would happen in the next elections,” Obaseki said.

However, a PDP chieftain, Tom Ikimi, told the gathering that the party lost out due to the activities of former governor of Ekiti State, Ayo Fayose.

He said: “I not afraid to say that our problem in the Ekiti was caused by the activities of our immediate past governor, Ayo Fayose. He ruined the place before he left office, insisted on putting someone that worked with him as our candidate and no one could persuade him to do otherwise. He ended up on the Election Day, sprawling on the floor and crying and that didn’t help us.

The build up to the choice of a candidate in Ekiti was a big struggle. There were all kinds of meetings and interventions until they had to push away Segun Oni who went to SDP that was not known and the outcome is clear.”