By Abiola Olawale
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A former minister of works, Adeseye Ogunlewe, has said the South-West region could produce 20 million votes for the national leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu if he decides to contest in the 2023 presidential election.
According to Ogunlewe, it is alarming that despite having 16 million registered voters in the 2019 general elections in the South-West, less than four million people, representing 17 percent voting populace, voted in the 2019 general election.
In an interview with Daily Independent, the former Chieftain of the Peoples Democratic People said: “Let us wait and see what happens. Let the man (Tinubu) come back home and solidify the South-West votes.
“The South-West can produce 20 million votes if we all work together and if we are serious about it. Is it not votes?”
Ogunlewe, who described Tinubu as the most prominent politician in the South-West, said the reason northern politicians were bragging about retaining power beyond 2023 was their voting strength.
“Why the Northern elders are saying all this is because their people vote. They don’t joke with votes during election.
“Only 17 percent of South-West people voted in the last election while the North had 34 percent. We are targeting 60 percent votes in the 2023 elections, and we are going to be prepared for it.
“That is the way to be scientific in any political argument. Anything they are saying in the North is because of their voting strength.
“What is our own arrangement here? When they were talking of collection of voter cards, people who were in Boko Haram-ravaged territories in the North-East collected their voter cards more than us here in the South. Rather than go out and enlighten people on the need to collect their cards, our own is to pull people down.”
'Dotun Akintomide's journalism works intersect business, environment, politics and developmental issues. Among a number of local and international publications, his work has appeared in the New York Times. He's a winner of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Award.
Currently, the Online Editor at The New Diplomat, Akintomide has produced reports that uniquely spoke to Nigeria's experience on Climate Change issues.
When Akintomide is not writing, volunteering or working on a media project, you can find him seeing beautiful sites like the sandy beaches that bedecked the Lagos coastline.
