CHIEFJamiu Afolabi Jimoh Ekungba, a governorship aspirant in Ondo State, is confident that his Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has all it takes to handle its primary without rancour and acrimony.The political atmosphere in Ondo State is getting charged, especially in the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), with the increasing number of aspirants wanting to become governor on its platform'It is not a sin to aspire to a position of authority. The case in Ondo State is peculiar because it is known to have suffered good governance, as those privileged to be in positions of leadership lack the capacity and capability to harness the resources of the state.Consequently, even people who do not know the depth of the problem and people whose capacity and capability may not even be better than those people who have messed it up are projecting themselves as better alternatives.So many people know there are problems and there is a need to proffer proper solutions, and that is why so many people are anxious to come out to want to proffer the solution.But as time goes on, the grain will be separated from the chaff. The party, being a progressive party, will pick the candidate that has deep knowledge of the problem and the passion and vision to serve the people.ACN will also want to look for somebody who has the capability and capacity to do the job, so the best candidate will emerge.Why are you confidant that the ACN has the capacity to dislodge the incumbent, considering his performance'I have told people not resident in Ondo State that there is a lot of hyping of the incumbent governor, what we call whitewashing, which is what the governor is doing.When we get to the campaign, I know how to handle each one of the projects and present them to the people, who will see the lies, falsehood and deceit in them. It is all propaganda!What the people of Ondo need are not these white elephant projects, but realistic projects that touch their lives, that will reinvigorate the economy of the state.You go to the state and see classrooms without roofs, yet someone is building mega schools. I am not ready to discuss the present governor's programme until we get there.I am going to first bring confidence back to governance. I am sure of my capacity, background and experience to handle it effectively and I will handle it so proactively that every indigene will be proud to be from that state.But not much is being heard about your programmes. What have been the challenges'The reason is that I joined the party in July last year at a time the executives was trying to widen the scope of the party after the party was unable to win a single seat at the last general election.The first thing I needed to do is to work with the executives of the party to expand the dynamism of the party, and that is what we have been doing. We have allowed ACN to permeate from the state to local government areas, wards and polling units, which demand a lot of resources- human and material.The next stage is selling my candidature through direct and indirect marketing. I am a new entrant into the party, less than one year, but I am known in the party more than some people who have been there for over five years at the state level.What remains to be done now is to come to the national level, but coming out in the national newspapers is not as important, because the election is going to be in Ondo State.Since most of my work will be in Ondo State, the people I need to talk to as time goes on is the Ondo community in Lagos, who must be interested in what I can positively impact their brothers, sisters, mothers and fathers at home.But there are rumours that certain aspirants have been anointed'The leadership of ACN has not anointed anybody. Everybody has been asked to go and work and they know those that are working and those who have the capacity and capability to deliver to their satisfaction.What differentiates the boys from the men is the ability of the men to turn the perceived disadvantage to strength with which to attain greater height.All the aspirants of ACN in Ondo State are men, so we have seen this large number of aspirants as a thing of joy to our opponents that we are likely to slug it out and fight.The truth is that Ondo State parades high quality gentlemen who are capable of running the state better than how it is being run now.We have resolved that our aspiration is not a matter of ourselves, but the party. The supremacy of the party is high. The issue of our state is also more important to us than our personality.As a result, if the ambition is to serve our people through our party, we must therefore resolve to ensure that whatever is the decision of the party becomes supreme.That is why, for instance, we put in place the All Aspirants' Forum to iron issues out amicably. We have resolved that what each of us needs to do is continue to work assiduously to give the ACN a very dynamic growth at all levels.We would also continue to pray for our leaders for God to guide them to pick one of us, who will be able to harness the resources and potentials in all of us for the benefit of the state.All the ACN aspirants have agreed that whoever is picked will enjoy the support of others with the ultimate goal of winning the election, because it is by coming together to form a synergy that we would be able to wrestle power from the incumbent.With the assumption that ACN does not believe in emergence of its candidate through the primary election, what chance do you stand to emerge as the flag bearer'ACN has its own system, called nomination, which is not done by an individual. It is not that the party just closes its eyes to pick one person, no.It was the same system used by the defunct Action Group (AG) and Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), where the elders are passionately and objectively involved in the screening to ensure that moneybags don't just come and hijack the party.The nomination is not just about picking; a lot of things go into it, hence there is no crisis thereafter.
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