Barely 19 days to the 2023 presidential election, the Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, has expressed confidence that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) will win the forthcoming general elections.
The former governor of Lagos State made the assertion during his appearance on Channels’ TV political programme ‘Politics Today’ on Monday night.
He said that election is a game of numbers which is well understood by the members of the APC.
Fashola stated, “We are a few days to the election now, less than three weeks. We have momentum. The APC will win this election. We are not looking at a coronation. We know it’s a competition, but the opposition is clearly behind. Let me tell you why.
“Election, as we all say, see is a game of numbers. Isn’t it? But in those numbers, one of the cardinal problems that the opposition has had is that they have divided. So it won’t add up. The main opposition today, Labour Party, NNPP and PDP were one side in 2019. The totality of their votes was still around three million votes short of the poll by which we won.
“If you were not enough when you were together, how can you be enough when you are broken into three? Are you bringing more new people in from outside Nigeria? It is not going to add up. It’s just that simple. People have made up their minds. I am happy that a lot more people, especially in the mid-cadre, have shown interest in the elections.
“In persons, we have done 5,000 sample pools and APC is clearly ahead. But I won’t tell you about the percentage difference. The number of undecided voters is now averaging below 5%. We are getting to the stage where campaigns will begin to lose steam.
“Most of the promises we made, we are still working on them, evolving and making progress. In some places, we admit that we need to do more. This is why we feel that we will be entrusted with the capacity to do to complete what we have started because people can see the difference. We haven’t finished solving the problem. But there’s a stark difference in momentum that will move the needle.”
Ifunanya Ikueze is an Engineer, Safety Professional, Writer, Investor, Entrepreneur and Educator.
