Expdonaloaded News; Leadership, bane of PDP-Osifo, ex- Edo Chief of Staff

AS the people of Edo State warm up for the next gover­norship election in the state, a former Chief of Staff in the administration of former Governor Osereheimen Os­unbor, Isaiah Osifo has said that the major challenge of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is to pick a can­didate that would be accept­able to the people.Osifo, who is former chieftain of the PDP in the state told Daily Sun in an interview that his new party, the All Progressives Congress(APC) has every­thing going for it in the im­pending contest.

Excerpts:
Edo State is going into gubernatorial election next year, what is your assess­ment of the chances of the two dominant parties- PDP and APC- in the state?
Well, two things are go­ing to play; the acceptance of the political party and the personality of the candidates. Right now, APC is getting high acceptance in Edo State because of two major reasons; the people of Edo State are looking up to the President of Nigeria to carry out his principle of reform. Reforming the system eco­nomically, socially, politi­cally, creating infrastructure, wealth or creating employ­ment to bring income and to guarantee security.
Now with this high expec­tation of the people of Edo State on the performance of APC federal government led by President Muhammadu Buhari, there is the tendency of many of the people to look at the direction of the APC in view of what they expect that the federal gov­ernment is going to do for this country for which Edo State is going to be a major beneficiary. They will prefer to go along with that party that is in charge of the fed­eral government.
Secondly, the National Chairman of APC, Chief John Odigie Oyegun, is from Edo State and as a former governor of this state, an illustrious son of this state, the people of Edo State are mobilizing to give him all the necessary sup­port that will make his party to become, if possible, the only party in Edo State. The people of Edo State owe him (Oyegun) that, giving him the home support as national chairman by ensuring that Edo State is going to be like almost one party, APC state.
For these two reasons, APC has a very high advan­tage in Edo State. Then, I said the other one is the per­sonality of the candidate and that is where people are now talking. Do not say because of the high support and as­sociation of the people of Edo State for the Buhari -led government giving APC popularity and Chief Oye­gun’s national chairman that you will now go back and sit and pick a nonentity as an APC gubernatorial can­didate. Because, the people of Edo State are wise, they are enlightened, they are independent minded. So, if you say because the party is strong, is popular and you are going to pick a nonentity as gubernatorial candidate, the voters may decide to vote otherwise. Because 90 per cent of the electorate are not members of any political party, at best those who are really in political parties, that are real partisan politicians, that attend meetings and have membership cards, are just about 10 per cent of the electorates. The remaining 90 per cent of the electorate are happy and supporting the federal government led by Buhari and supporting APC led by Chief Oyegun, you cannot on the basis of that go and give the people a no­torious person to be the can­didate of APC and expect them to vote for that person.
Does PDP not have any­thing going for it in the 2016 gubernatorial elec­tions?
The only thing that PDP is going to have, is that I do not know that candidate they are going to pick, it is that candidate that is going to give them a platform, if they will have any, because the party has disappointed a lot of Nigerians and the people of Edo State. The party has demonstrated that the lead­ership is not to be trusted. The leadership of the party has destroyed the image of the party at the national and at the state level.
So, as far as I am con­cerned the leadership of PDP has nothing to offer in Edo State.