Oshiomhole: Why governors were absent from presidential campaign council meeting

The national chairman of the governing All Progressives Congress
(APC), Adams Oshiomhole, has said the 24 governors elected under
the platform of the party stayed away from the inaugural meeting of
the Presidential campaign council simply because “they are
governors”.

None of the governors were present Thursday at the inaugural
meeting of the council chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Asked why the governors were absent, Oshiomhole said: “because
they are governors, they are governing their states.

“Don’t forget that elections are not defined in Abuja, it will
take place in the 36 states and I am sure there are APC members who
are campaigning for the House of Assembly, various federal house
and senate constituencies, governorship constituencies.

“So it will not be helpful to bring them to Abuja. Here, it is
about policies, it will be consummated and translated to practice
across the 36 states, 774 local governments and wards,” he
said.

Oshiomhole said Thursday’s meeting was convened to discuss the
activities and calendar of campaigns capturing various interests
group within the country.

The APC chairman said Buhari’s constituency is “the whole
country” and “he will have to visit each of the 36 states with
appropriate messages”.

“You know in the country today, given the challenges of
survival, people tend to forget where we are coming from, they just
look at where we are.

“There is a saying that except you know and remember where you
are coming from, you cannot appreciate where you are.

“Even in the life of a man, those who look at those in their
front will never thank God enough but when you look at your back
and see those behind, then you will appreciate that you have made a
lot of progress,” he said.

He said the APC needs to constantly remind Nigerians of what
happened in the last 16 years and what has changed over the past
three and half years, even more what will happen over the next four
years if given the mandate to continue.

“You know that the business of construction is even much more
challenging than when you are building a complete new house.

“So when you are saddled with the responsibility of
repositioning an economy that has been so battered. Even in the
face of surplus budgeting, the government was borrowing money.”

“If you look at budget of five, 10 years ago, you will find that
almost the entire earnings of the government went into the current
expenditure which is why this government with lower revenue is
spending more on infrastructure.”

Oshiomhole said the APC has “enough message” for Nigerians but
are facing the challenge of communication due to the varyi varying
degrees of literacy.

“And in this business of ‘one man one vote’, whether you are a
professor of economics or a stark illiterate, the vote is the
same,” he said.

“So the challenges, in terms of messages is how we make sure
that Mr. President’s constituency, which is those are are
economically and socially deprived, the masses of our people, the
one you call ‘talakas’, that we assist them to recognise where we
coming from and the fact that for once, we have a president that
nobody can call a thief.”