Why APC Will Record Landslide Victory In Ekiti - National Secretary, Ajibola Basiru

[00:00:10]Thanks for joining us on the show everyone. On Saturday, more than a million registered voters in Ikit state will decide whether Governor Bodu Yangji deserves another four years in office or whether it's time for a change. With over 97% PVC collection, 2,445 polling units, and 14 parties on the ballot, the election is shaping up as one of the most closely watched off cycle governorship contests in the country. Now, the APC is projecting confidence. In fact, its final mega rally attracted the vice president, the Senate President, and an extraordinary parade of APC governors from across the country. Yet beneath the show of strength lie difficult questions, voter concerns about the economy and security, agitation for power rotation to akit south and opposition claims that the ruling parties relying more on political muscle than performance. Joining me now is Senator Ajiba Bashiru, national secretary of the APC. He joins me for more in A beyond the headlines.

[00:01:20]Distinguished, thanks for joining us again on the program.

[00:01:24]>> Yeah, good evening. How are you?

[00:01:26]>> Great. On Tuesday, your party's final rally brought together the vice president, the Senate President, a large number of APC governors. Uh for some observers, that looked um they say it looked less like a state election rally, more of a presidential election. What's happening? What are you trying to prove in?

[00:01:49]>> That has always been the tradition of our party, the APC. When we have any election, we take it very serious and we see uh the election as very critical preparatory to the 2027 I mean general election. uh if you have observed that in the all the obstacle election that have been done since the emergence of presidentu our rallies and our political engagement with the people has always been uh widespread and has always I mean be very I mean engaging. to the team is just signaling the seriousness that our party attached I mean to the election and the reelection of Governor Boduangi on Saturday 20th of June 2026 >> you know we often hear concerns about overmilitarizing of elections looking at the sheer concentration of political heavyweights 18 governors you know your Your critics are saying [clears throat] maybe you are overgovernorizing this election. Is there a sense to which um you uh is there a risk that voters may see such overwhelming displays of power as intimidation rather than persuasion? I I I wouldn't say how can how can governors who are members of our party the senate president and functionalist members of our party attending a a party rally am to militariz militarization that cannot be the case but the truth is that I must set Nigerian people that governor is entering this race with certain advantages over that I mean of the opposition party We have the advantage of stalling performance of Governor Abayi in the area of infrastructure in the area of education in the area of human capacity development and in the area of leading a cohesive governance that has unified a kitty people around him with the consensus that he should go ahead and continue uh the good work that he's doing. uh just I mean yesterday we saw the leadership of the TU and the NSC coming together uh to endorse him and to continue to say that since assumption of office there have been industrial peace in the public service sector I mean of the state so beyond the fact that even the other political party even if they want to bring governors to come and campaign they don't have any governor ADC has no sitting governor PDP has no sitting governor and all other political party don't have governor the maxim in law is that you cannot give what you don't have so if you don't have governor which governor are you going to parade the APC today we have 20 about 30 or so governors and some of the other governors are also align with us in the progressive movement so it's not about militarization of our train of strength but the beyond winning the election we want to use Akit at a test to show that Ekit is the uh is is a grant for progressive politics and we are looking beyond winning to have a large I'm imagine and of course large photo turnout in the election and that's why even now are coming from the feed to come and attend this press interview and going back to the feed to ensure that we continue to mobilize sensitize and organize a kit electorate towards the victory and I'm imagine of victory for our party on Saturday by the grace of almighty God.

[00:05:38]>> Senator Bash, you're talking about taking this election seriously. I I was somewhere earlier today and the person by the the person with me um the person's phone rang and it was from uh one of your party officials in the you know canvasing for votes via telephone that I hope you're coming out on Saturday to vote for so so person. And that's interesting because it was even calling someone here in Lagos. But when you face the reality in one striking feature of the APC rally on Tuesday was the decision not to have music reportedly out of concern over the recent tragedy involving abducted children in neighboring state. While many applauded that gesture, others say it reflects a deeper national anxiety about insecurity. How worried is your party that voters may use Saturday's election to express some form of frustration with the broader security situation under the ruling party at the national level.

[00:06:43]>> I must face that it's quite unfortunate that there's a weaponization of insecurity at every circle of election in the past three uh circle of election that we have had nationally. But I would say that issue of uh security or otherwise is not an issue in the present ekit election. In fact, the election is being conducted in an atmosphere of I mean peaceful coexistence and coercion of a states. No doubt there is challenge of insecurity in the country but our military personnel and security operatives they are doing their best in order to able to address the issue.

[00:07:22]Unfortunately the success uh in or otherwise in case of insecurity is not even measured by the successes is measured by the few lapses that might have I mean occur particularly insurgency and banditry being a battle that has no h no front but this may insecurity issue is not an issue in the election the election is a referendum of continuity is a referendum of acceptance and referendum of an adoption of progressive idea of abomin.

[00:08:07]So we are very optimistic and believe that a kit electorate will come in their large numbers to vote for APC and vote for continuity of good governance and a selfless leadership of Bodum Abayomi on Saturday. You know, APC keeps asking voters to assess Governor Yangji on his performance, but opposition parties are asking voters to assess APC as a whole.

[00:08:37]They're talking about food prices, inflation, cost of living, and insecurity. Can you realistically separate Governor Yanji's candidacy from public perceptions of government at the center?

[00:08:50]>> No, the public the public center is very good. Even when you talk of food inflation in the past one and a half years the national government has done much in being able to address the question of our headline and inflation and beyond these two there are lot of massive investment in infrastructure and the kitty state is not left out from enjoyment of that massive ambitious infrastructure a development of president Bola aimu and of course there are also some other areas of activity that is endearing the APC to the people of a state. You have the LE fund which has allow children of the vulnerable in society more than 1.2 2 million of them to have access to funding for the education has also stiffened for them to have a living allowance while getting themselves I mean educated you also have intervention in the small and medium scale enterprises you have intervention in the area of agriculture and several I mean other area the truth is this the opposition in so-called opposition in the kitty state are faggment fragmented largely unacceptable to the kitty state I mean people and they are not organized. They are nowhere today. You can even investigate. Look at I mean the opposition where are they doing their campaign? They are not anywhere doing any campaign. Winning an election is about mobilization. It's about education. It's about sensitization.

[00:10:19]It's about conceptization. And this is what the APC even though we have the incubency in our favor. We are still nourishing and to continue to engage the stakeholders critical stakeholders in every community in every professional uh spheres and even the traditional rulers were are also being engaged to ensure that we have a large margin of victory that show that APC is the party of first I mean choice not only in the K state but in Nigeria at large >> since let's let's talk about some local politics because interestingly that's where I'm from as well and we've been following developments in AKT as we continue to cover >> to vote.

[00:11:01]>> Well, you know, I'm a journalist. I have to also oversee uh and and make you guys accountable from Lagos on election day as we've started doing today. You know, since state was created in 1996, power has largely rotated between the central and north senatorial districts. And this time two of the major challengers are from Ikit South and there's a growing argument that fairness demands a governor from that zone. Why should voters ignore that sentiment and return power to the central district for another four years?

[00:11:38]Unfortunately the I I would disagree to say that a major challenger there's no really serious challenger to governor Jordan and APC in this election and the records are there for you to show. So the question of zoning it's about development of akit states and the message that ikiti people are on their own realizing is that there's a need for continuity there's a need for consolidation of good governance and there's a need to further accelerate the unification and development of ikit state in other ramification and the best embodiment of that unification that acceleration of development is the APC and Abayomi come Saturday in the election and I will tell you maybe in the brain of some people the so-called agitation of I mean power shift is largely in the mental construct of some few I mean indolent I mean politicians who are not in tune with the reality of what is on ground in the kitty state have moved across all the 16 local government in the kitty state we have largely to all the 177 uh legislation areas since I've been here I mean this week and the message across the broad spectrum of electorally is that they want continuity of good governance and continuity of and the APC beyond 2026 >> um and some analysts agree with you to the extent that this election is being heavily t tilted in favor of the APC you know um but some also even argue that the race lacks the kind of competitiveness that it is known for.

[00:13:25]Does that concern you? Could excessive confidence among APC supporters translate into voter apathy on election day?

[00:13:35]>> We are not uh resting on our horse to mobilize even though we are optimistic of success in that election. Just as I told you the race is not about winning alone. is about making a statement that for the first time akiti had the benefit of their son who has been able to unify people along I mean different political divide and I will speak to figure in the last uh governorship I mean election APC won with about 197,000 votes but in that election PDP have 60 has 9,000 vote or so and the SDP of governor she had about 82,000 I mean vote Today govern former governor is suddenly one of the back of the APC the PDP leader who is now I mean the leader of what he call that's suddenly behind governor the former deputy governor who was I mean a senator is now suddenly canvasing today across the breadth Let senator mean in company of the women and a group are moving around mobilizing. So the politics is not about mental construct of certain individual is about working about resonating with the janis and aspiration of the people and this our party the APC and our governor is doing together with what he has done what we call a pan agenda that represent today you have a unification of all the elites that we must unify And democracy is not about competitive competitiveness. It's about unanimity of idea. The expression of democratic aspiration is actually about unanimity and not competitiveness. If as we have today there's already a consensus that APC and Jordan should be going to go ahead by majority of state people then why are we going to be looking for opposition that is not in the system opposition that is ruthless opposition that has no credible alternative I mean program to what is being done and what is already being on ground in terms of asserated infrastructure development um capacity development and constructive engagement of people for development of their territory.

[00:16:09]>> These other contenders who you have called pretenders because you mentioned that there are there is no major competition in this contest. They've been speaking tough. The PDP candidate for instance Dr. says that Governor Yangji should begin preparing his handover notes. The ADC uh candidate insists that the state needs a fresh direction. Beyond campaign rhetoric, what do you believe the opposition is fundamentally getting wrong about ikit and its voters in this election?

[00:16:38]>> I think they are not in conssonance with what is happening in a kit. You see there's the greatest deception that can happen to anybody itself. I'm a deception for anybody to be saying that people are saying you have you need fresh ideas beyond APC is actually in the realms of conjecture not in real in in the realm of what is really on ground in the kit state today unless they are not talking about the city local government and 177 words in the kit I mean today and they're talking about even the provenence of these h contenders both I mean is the political I mean pedigree and political experience that day or abid of the ADC is bringing I mean to to bear the last time I checked days I mean last I mean checkpoint as in any public engagement was in 2003 so you want to say somebody who in reality had become stale to say that is bringing fresh ideas to run a kitty you may not know me and I'm not send it to patronize you has only been part and parcel of a kit project. He was the secretary of the creation of a kit state and he has been part of all progressive government in the state right from that of our leader and that of the immediate past government of Dr. So he's bringing he has brought to bear the knowledge experience about ikit what ikit needs what ikit wants and the future of ikit. So the embodiment of the future of Ekiti is abomi and the all progressive congress that is is carrying the banner and you can see all around the nook and of the slogan is how are you ba so we are optimistic and we enjoying a kitty voters to come out and show in their unres in in in in their large capacity to show that the to beat in the election is abomi and the party that is in the in line with the aspiration of the present and the future of state is the all progressive army congress >> I'm hoping that we will have this conversation again after election because um 97% PVCs have been collected I understand why the expectations are high but you also know that low voter turnout in the past has been largely connected to uh with a growing disconnect between political parties and ordinary voters. Do you have a different expectation for Saturday?

[00:19:27]>> We we were respecting we are working as I told you I came from the feed to come and do this interview. All our mobilizers and canvasers are on the feed. Getting out the vote is actually I mean the slogan. We are optimistic of winning but want to win with large I mean majority operations no less than 500,000 for for APC is what we have launched and operation 16 of the 16 I'm a local government 177 of the 177 words is what the APC has launched. And I I hope at the end of the day we still come here to be able to assess the extent to which you have achieved it. But I'm very optimistic that at the end of the day APC is going to come uh top with large margin in the election. We are going to win uh in all the 16 local governments and indeed in all the 177 awards of a state by the grace of almighty god. But we are not resting on our ass. We are working. We are working and we continue to work within the time frame. framework for end of campaign by midnight of today.

[00:20:31]>> Well, it's one thing to win this election, but it's another thing to, you know, win it convincingly relative to the number of voters who have registered because that's would speak a lot about the engagement of the people and the faith that they have in your party.

[00:20:46]Everything you've said on this show suggests APC already sees this election as one, but it is famous for surprising political book makers. Right. What outcome on Saturday night would genuinely shock you?

[00:21:03]>> I think there's no outcome. There's no there's no shock. There's no surprises here from what we have seen on GR and I'm not talking from Abuja. I'm talking from Aditi and I've been to all the 16 local government of Ikiti state people have resolved to vote for Bodangi and the APC on Saturday by 5:00 p.m. On Saturday, the game will be over for the so-called opposition political party.

[00:21:29]People have decided to vote for continuity for consolation of development and to reward the character of another four years in the government house initi. And we are very thankful in advance for state people. We appreciate their support, their connectedness with us and the overwhelming support they're going to give us on Saturday in the election.

[00:21:57]>> You think it will be a referendum on Governor Oaji or on um President's performance?

[00:22:03]>> Both both definitely because we believe that the uh experience of uh people under President Ba Metu has been very uh positive. infrastructure development from the federal government is clearly clear clearly manifest in the kit state and the support just like governor always say it is because of the support is getting from presidentu that people are enjoying the dividend of democracy under his leadership so it's going to be a referendum of support both for presidentu and governor abomi on Saturday and of course it also signal the acceptance of Nigerian people of all progressive congress as the party of first resort by any genuine progressiveminded and developmentloving Nigerian people.

[00:22:54]>> We have to go now but let me take you quickly to your home state in Oon. The political atmosphere there is al already becoming very intense ahead of the August election. I'm sure you're following uh developments as regards members of your party now decamping to accord party especially those loyal to Senator Omisher. Are you fidgeting already?

[00:23:17]>> I I think I would rather concentrate on my assignment in Ekiti then when we get to the bridge we cross it. But just as I said, no election is uh easy. But I know definitely that by the time we get after this assignment to the board and we work and very hard, then we are going to also have a resounding victory for our party on August 15 in Ou state. We're optimistic of success and victory in that election. But let us concentrate on the present assignment which is operation no less than 500,000 votes for and APC on Saturday. All right, we'll be here to countdown and also see how that goes. Uh hopefully the next time we talk, we'll be discussing the uh the number of votes uh or the number of people who came out for this particular election. National Secretary APC Senator Abul Bashir, thank you for your insight.

[00:24:13]>> Yeah, nice having you here too. Thank you. And if and next time come and vote in the state.

[00:24:20]>> Absolutely. I'm looking forward to it.

[00:24:21]Before we go everyone, it's a reminder that the road to the Akiti governorship election begins right here on TVC News.

[00:24:29]You can join us tomorrow at 6 PM as we open our special Kitty election studio.

[00:24:34]It's not going to be for 30 minutes. It will be a 1h hour preview of the big contest. Who holds the advantage? Which local government areas could decide the outcome? And what exactly should voters expect as the state heads to the polls?

[00:24:50]So you're going to have expert analysis, pulling insight. We have our men across the 16 local government areas of Ikit state. We'll be speaking with key political stakeholders and we're setting the stage for what to expect on Saturday. That's our show today.

[00:25:04]Remember, you can watch it again at midnight and 6:00 a.m. tomorrow. I am Niu.