Former Speaker of the Ondo State House of Assembly and Coordinator of the Jonathan/Sambo Campaign Organisation in the state, Rt. Hon. Taofik Abdussalam, in this interview journalists in Akure, speaks on the chances of the president in Ondo State. Yinka Oladoyinbo brings excerptsTHE presidential election is on Saturday, what are the chances of President Goodluck Jonathan in Ondo StateWe have been saying it, and we will continue to say it, that the Jonathan/Sambo ticket has no opposition in Ondo State. The people of the state are ready to give the ticket 100 per cent of their votes. We have about 1.6 million registered voters in the state and plus or minus, we should be able to give our president close to the total number because the state is PDP.The fact that we lost to judicial abracadabra notwithstanding, the people of the state know which government touched their lives and know those that have been deceiving them, so it will not be difficult for the PDP to win Ondo State for the president like we did during the presidential primary of the party in Abuja. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is in the opposition in Ondo State. Dont you think this can work against the party in the stateNigerian politics is very dynamic and anything can happen. PDP is the party to beat in Ondo State and the fact that the ruling party in the state has no presidential candidate is an advantage, coupled with the fact that everybody wants to be a good boy at the federal capital.The people in government in the state have no choice than to play ball and people should not be surprised that a lots of moves are being made by the government to ensure that it is loyal to the president.There are moves here and there to align with one party or the other and I am sure they will give the president 100 per cent support on Saturday.But the Commissioner for Information in the state recently said that the government had not adopted any presidential candidate; how do we reconcile this with your claimWhen you say Commissioner for Information, he is not the one dealing with the president, so we are expecting the governor to comment on that. Once the governor says that, then it can be taken to be the official stand of the state government on the issue, but I am quite sure that the governor will never say that.As the state coordinator of the Jonathan/Sambo campaign, what can you say are the specific things done by President Goodluck Jonathan that can give him the edge during the electionOne thing I notice about this man is his humble background and he is somebody that has rekindled our hope in Nigeria- that wherever you area and whoever you are, you can be anything in the country. He has given us hope that Nigeria can be better than what it is now and for the past nine months now that he has been in the saddle as the substantive president, he has recorded some notable achievements that we can point to. We all know that it has become a tradition in the country to witness fuel scarcity, particularly towards the end of the year, and this has always had adverse effects on the economy of the nation. But Jonathan has been able to stabilize the sector and we have not witnessed fuel scarcity since he came on board. Talking about the relative peace recorded in the Niger Delta, this has also gone a long way in improving the local production level of the country in the oil sector, and there has also been a significant improvement in the power.The president has always said it that two years under his leadership, the power situation in less than 2000 megawatts that we used to have; he has been able to sustain that 4000 megawatts in the short period that he has spent and we believe that if given chance, he can do better. Jonathan also has an attractive personality, as he is somebody that is quiet but focused and has a goal as far as Nigeria is concerned.So I think Nigerians should give him that chance and let him build on what he has started.Do you think Nigeria needs a quiet person as president at this point in time When we say somebody is quiet and focused, it means he has listening ears. Dr Jonathan is somebody you can talk to and he will give you the necessary attention and listen to you and be able to give solution to any problem. His is not the quietness of somebody that has nothing to offer, he will want you to explain what you want to do and give you the required support.The South-West and the North-West regions of the country have the largest number of voters in the country and the South-West is being controlled by the opposition. How do you want to ensure that this does not affect Jonathans victory at the poll If we want to do the analysis of what is happening as far as the South-West is concerned, the six states in the region will give more than the required number of votes needed to win the presidency. If we go to Ekiti State, we know that the state has been created for about 15 years now and this man said the state deserves a federal university and he has given it to them. He said he would fix the Ero dam, the Egbe dam, and he has started working on that, so the people of Ekiti know what is happening and they are very enlightened. People like Afe Babalola and others know what this man can do and what he has already done for them. The issue of opposition party in that state is not something that we are bothered about because we know the president will win Ekiti, Lagos, Ondo and Osun State that are presently being controlled by the opposition parties. Also, we should not lose sight of the fact that Mohammadu Buhari, Nuhu Ribadu and Ibrahim Shekarau are all from the North and CPC is not even in control of any of the states there; it is the PDP that controls most of the states in the North-West.If you are saying that Buhari is pulling crowds, it is bound to happen. People pull crowds during campaign, as they mobilize from all over a state to campaign at any particular point in time. It is not a matter of a party controlling some sections of the country and this preventing our president from wining; the opposition will be surprised that on Saturday, the people of Nigeria will vote for Jonathan.In Ondo State, what are the campaign issues for the president, what has he done to deserve the votes of the people of the stateFirst, there are a lot of projects initiated by the Federal Government which he has ensured are on track. We have the Omotosho power plant which has been completed up to 300 megawatts capacity, he has started working on the phase two of the project that will bring the total capacity of the plant to 600 megawatts. He has promised to ensure that the Benin-Ore-Sagamu road is reconstructed to stop the carnage and the unnecessary waste of time on the highway due to its poor state. Apart from these, the president has also given total attention to the Olokola OK=LNG projects that will bring investments worth billions of dollars to the state; he has taken the project as a priority and has been saying that Ondo State is very important to the economic development of the nation.Therefore, we dont have any other choice than to be in the mainstream of the Nigerian politics. The president believes in the people of Ondo State and since the state is part of the Niger-Delta and he wants to develop the coastal area of Nigeria, of which Ondo State happens to be one. So if somebody is saying he wants to develop the area, why do we have to stay behind and not join him
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