Chief Jamiu Ekungba is a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and member of the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the party. Ekungba, a renowned accountant, who holds the traditional title of EkonOdoAgbara of Owo as well as religious title of Baba Adin of Owo land, exclusively spoke with ONYEDIKA AGBEDO on issues surrounding the recent governorship primary of the party in the state. He urged all the contestants to close ranks and work for the success of Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa, who has now become the flag-bearer of the party in the forthcoming November 16, 2024 gubernatorial election, stressing that “the party is big enough to take all of us.” He also spoke on the efforts of the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration to fix the problems of the country, pointing out its successes so far and areas that require improvement going forward.My take is multi-dimensional because it was the first time direct primary would be conducted in Ondo State by the party. It entails that every registered member of the party, whose membership was revalidated by the national body when they came for that purpose, is expected to vote. It was during the revalidation that I got to know that you have to be a financial member to be able to partake in the primary election.A lot of people didn’t know; there were members who were not allowed to vote and they were crying. It’s the first time it was done in Ondo State and that’s the first dimension that came in.I have said one thing – what is the election material for Option A4? It is just paper to record the result. Then you have the electoral officer for the ward and the INEC official to witness the election. In my local council, Owo, we waited for them and they came and brought the paper. We asked if that was the election material and they said yes. They also came with the accredited membership register. In my ward, there are about 700 members of the party but those who were revalidated were just about 500.As I said, it’s an innovation by the APC. I hope whatever they have learnt from this one can be perfected going forward.Let me put it this way; what advice do I have for all APC members? Now the winner of this primary election is APC. Somebody has been given a ticket; that person wants to win the main election. So, he must stoop to conquer; he must come down to the level of everybody that is pained.(Cuts in) No, no, no! The difference between Edo and Ondo primaries is wide. In Edo, there were crises that produced two different results of the primary. The team set up by the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party provided two different results and that was the crisis. But here, the team that was sent to come and conduct this primary was together and did the work. The only problem that I saw, which needs to be corrected, is this – it is not their job to conduct elections. You can’t compare them with INEC; the people in INEC are trained, re-trained and they sit down and plan elections. But these people were just put together within two or three weeks and asked to go and conduct an election.One thing that I tell people when we were campaigning for the President is that he is an astute politician. He knows how to handle political issues. That’s number one.What I told people then (and you can check the record) was that within three months, he would be properly on the seat and become the driver of the nation. Has he achieved that or not? He has! The difference between what happened to Nigeria and what we are seeing is that at the time he took over, which is also a credit to him, the economic situation in Nigeria was not understood by anybody.There were crises all over the place, especially insecurity, before he came; the intensity of insecurity has reduced under his watch. You will tell that hundreds of students were kidnapped in Kaduna State. When hundreds of students were kidnapped in Borno State, what happened? Till now we have not been able to completely recue them. These students have been rescued. That’s the president being in charge of the driver’s seat.
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