You are here: HomeNews2023 01 06Article 618677

Politics of Friday, 6 January 2023

Source: thenationonlineng.net

Why Nigerians in diaspora are supporting Tinubu

Dr Abiola Oshodi is the Media Director of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council, Canada Chapter. He is a chieftain of the APC in Ondo State. In this interview with OSAGIE OTABOR, he speaks on the chances of the APC, how people abroad are contributing to Tinubu’s campaign and how Peter Obi’s candidacy will not affect APC victory

In what ways are people in the diaspora contributing to the campaign effort of Tinubu, since you are a member of the APC?

The Nigerian diaspora is an integral part of Nigeria even though many of us left the country for different reasons. The bigger truth is that all of us dream and wish for a greater Nigeria that we can call home and it’s against this background that many of us are very much involved in the Nigerian political process at different levels. We are stakeholders in the Nigeria project and we remit over 25 billion dollars annually to Nigeria we can remit more especially, if there are very clear developmental pathways as enunciated in the renewed hope manifesto of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu where we can partner with the government under different business partnership models. Many of us have substantial leverage on our people at home who look up to us and also listen to us so that they can make the right decision. We can sensitive our people, educate them and mobilize them to the polls come February 2023 to elect Asiwaju as the next president of Nigeria.

What are the chances of the APC winning the presidency?

APC has a very bright chance to emerge victorious in the 2023 national election not just at the presidential level but also at multiple levels in as much as the election is free and fair. And we believe INEC will conduct a free and fair election in 2023. The 2022 electoral act has reformed many hiccups that previous elections experienced.

There seems to be too much concentration of Diaspora attention on the presidency. Why are you guys not focusing on the national and state assembly elections?

The kind of democratic system that we practice which is the presidential type places lots of power in the Nigeria presidency. We believe if we can get things right at the presidency, then we will get things right at lower levels and that’s why our attention seems to be focused on the presidency though we are not neglecting other layers of the various elective posts that are being contested in 2023. The trickle-down effect of campaigning vigorously for the APC presidential candidate will certainly work positively and in favour of other APC contestants for various posts.

Why you are so politically active?

APC has a very bright chance to emerge victorious in the 2023 national election not just at the presidential level but also at multiple levels in as much as the election is free and fair. And we believe INEC will conduct a free and fair election in 2023. The 2022 electoral act has reformed many hiccups that previous elections experienced.

There seems to be too much concentration of Diaspora attention on the presidency. Why are you guys not focusing on the national and state assembly elections?

The kind of democratic system that we practice which is the presidential type places lots of power in the Nigeria presidency. We believe if we can get things right at the presidency, then we will get things right at lower levels and that’s why our attention seems to be focused on the presidency though we are not neglecting other layers of the various elective posts that are being contested in 2023. The trickle-down effect of campaigning vigorously for the APC presidential candidate will certainly work positively and in favour of other APC contestants for various posts.

Why you are so politically active?

I am the convener Dr Abiola Oshodi for the Tinubu/Shettima media group, the patriots of Bola Ahmed Tinubu group (Convener), the Vice Chairman of APC Canada Chapter, and the media director of the APC, PCC Canada chapter. I believe as human being the most important ingredient in our genetic code is politics unless we want to deceive ourselves. For example, we all desire good life, we desire a great secure and safe country, the best education and health services etc, all these desires will remain mere wishes unless we participate in politics at some level in order to birth the kind of administration that can help operationalise these great and genuine desires that we have. I dream, think and visualize a Nigeria that will work for the majority of us and not a few of us and this is what drives my ambition to be part of the Nigerian political process to help ignite a new agenda, a new dawn.

The PDP in Ondo State has boasted that it would repeat its 2019 feat in 2023 by defeating the ruling party. What do you think of such confidence?


The PDP has defeated itself as far as next year’s general election is concerned. If wishes were horses beggars will ride. The PDP has been politically castrated from within by the Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi and he draws substantial political strength from the old PDP stronghold like the Southeast, but this will be a minus for the PDP. The PDP ought to have respected the gentleman agreement on power rotation between the North and the South and they ought to have ceded the presidency to the South. Unfortunately, they denied the South of that opportunity and this has led to the Governor Nyesom Wike faction, the G5 group that had a heavy crack within the PDP political foundation which cannot be easily repaired at least not in the immediate future as we race towards next year’s election. But, the APC as a political party remains strong, focused and united in the build-up to the election.

How prepared is your party for next year’s election, especially the presidential election?

We are prepared in my constituency, and the entire Ondo State to deliver our votes in quantum to our principal, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and other APC candidates at all levels come February 2023. We are prepared to mobilize our people to the polling units and cast their votes for all the APC candidates.

What kind of campaigns have you engaged in or plan to engage in to mobilise people at the grassroots to believe in Asiwaju’s presidency?

We are already doing a house-to-house and a neighbour-to-neighbour type of campaign that focuses on the building block of our democracy at the grassroots, particularly the polling units. For example many are unaware of the enormous changes that the 2022 Electoral Act has ignited in our electoral system, thus making ballot snatching a thing of the past or what used to happen in the past where people will just write and allocate figures. Thus we are prepared to leverage these revolutionary changes by also deploying technology to mobilise our people to the polls.