Jonathan Will Not Win In Edo state - Oshiomhole

Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole, has said that President Goodluck Jonathan will not get up to 5 percent of votes in the state at the 2015 presidential election because he has not justified the over 95 percent he got in 2011. The Comrade Governor spoke with journalists in Benin City, the Edo State capital as part of activities marking the 6th year anniversary of his

inauguration as governor.

He said the people of the state will resist every move to capture the state as the people are wiser this time around. He noted that, while Jonathan had released over N2 billion to the states controlled by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from the Ecological Fund, but refused to give anything to the All Progressives Congress (APC) states.

He said he had gone to the president on several occasions on the devastating effects of erosion in the state without the president doing anything about it.

He said: “In 2011, 95 per cent of the people in Edo State voted for the president, this coming election, he will not get five per cent because he has nothing to show for the votes that we gave him.

“When he gave N2 billon to PDP states from the National Ecological Fund, which is provided for under the constitution, funds that should be used for ecology whether soil erosion, wind erosion, desertification, among others, he gave to the PDP states where he lost the election in 2011, in Edo State where he won 95 per cent, he did not give us a dime.

“Yet we have written to the federal government under PDP, over and over to draw the attention to erosion problem in parts of the state, which has destroyed schools, homes, farmlands and others.

“Even the people of Auchi, led by their paramount ruler, the Otaru, have protested and blocked the Benin-Abuja highway to draw the attention of the federal government to the menace of the erosion that has consumed many homes and farmlands, yet that did not attract the attention of the president and I have raised it with him: our people voted for you why should you punish us. Must we be in PDP? Do we want a one party state in Nigeria?

“Edo people voted for a PDP presidency but what are we benefitting?
Nothing, just the resurfacing of Benin-Ofosu Road; that’s our reward for 15 years. So when the president said he will win Edo State, I was wondering. We will fight back because he will lose deposits here.

“The president’s choice of words for me was regrettable. No part of Nigeria should fall. So I am shocked by his choice of words. APC will be defeated in Bayelsa and Edo State, these states will not fall to PDP or APC but we will defeat them. We have to be wary of our language.

“The language of our president must not be violent; we mustn’t borrow military language in describing democratic issues,” the governor said.
On whether the APC would win the 2015 presidential election, the governor said the people of the state, who voted for Jonathan in 2011 because of his innocent look and his ‘Breath of Fresh Air’ campaign slogan, which he had long abandoned as a result of faulty advice from his aides, would not vote for the president.

He said: “See, the last time PDP won, they had 24 million votes all over the federation. The opposition had 12 million votes or something like that. Part of the 24 million that the president got was from Edo. He is not getting it this time.

“Part of that 24 million was two million rigged votes from Rivers State. I want to see the amount of armed forces he is going to deploy to rig to get two million votes in Rivers State. I just gave you two isolated examples.
“In the South-west, he won a couple of votes and the south-westerners are asking what do we have to show for it?

“In my view, what people voted for in President Jonathan was his gentlemanly outlook, his innocent look. I remember the campaign slogan was ‘A Breath of Fresh Air’, that was his selling point.

“The Edo people bought into that selling point but some people around him have now convinced him that he needs to go tough. That he needs to instill fear and that is why his language has suddenly changed believing that if the commander-in-chief talk with fear, people will submit and that is why rather than talk of one-man, one-vote, now he says Edo will fall.

“He also said so in the east, I think in Imo State where he said PDP would no longer be this generous. If people want to vote to remain in the dark, if that is the wish of majority of Nigerians, we’ll have to accept. But I will be surprised when the real question comes – when the real APC presidential candidate emerges.

“I believe in terms of specifics on the economy, unemployment, an incoherent industrial policy, that 15 years down the road we are still importing petroleum product, we are still debating how much we use on subsidising kerosene.

“Nigerians who want these to continue can vote for this same old dish of 15 years from PDP Nigeria which is clearly over ripe for change even in the interest of PDP people. We just need to have a change,” he said.