APC Primaries: Let there be level-playing ground for all aspirants, Osho charges party leadership
By Abolaji Adebayo
The outgoing Vice Chairman, who is one of the leading chairmanship aspirants under the platform of All Progressives Congress (APC) in Oshodi-Isolo LG, TPL Daisi Osho has urged the party leadership to conduct free and fair primaries, appealing for level playing ground and equal participation for all aspirants.
He said there should no be favouritism in conducting the primary, emphasising that each aspirant should be given opportunity to show their abilities and test their popularities.
Osho, who said he did not believe in the rumour making round that some leaders of the party are trying to impose a candidate on others, stated that the party could never do that.
According to him, if there would be such development, all other aspirants and stakeholders would have been duly informed about it and the order must have come from the apex leader, adding that the party could not impose an inexperienced person to take over that sensitive position.
In an exclusive chat with our correspondent, the aspirant said he is sure of victory if the election is free and fair.
Although he pleaded for fair play in the exercise, Osho said he would accept the party’s final decision, saying his ambition could not be bigger than the party.
He maintained that politics is not for the feeble-minded ones, emphasising that a loyal party member must accept the final decision of the party and the result of the election in good faith, noting that the party has a mechanism to pick a candidate if it so wishes.
Meanwhile, based on his qualifications both academic and professional and his experience in politics, Osho said he is the best among others fit for the position of the local council chairman which will become vacant on June 24, this year, insisting that the party mechanism if used, should favour him.
Osho said the kind of leadership would determine the kind of youths to be produced in the community, saying: “If an educated person rules, the youths would be motivated to be educated as well and we are going to produce more lawyers, more bankers, more architects and so on. But if a tout is allowed to control the government, the youths will follow the suit and we are bound to produce more hoodlums in the community.”
Speaking about his qualifications which are supposed to give him edge over other aspirants, Osho said he is an Urban and Regional Planner and Architect by profession, a graduate with good certificates.
He said he is a seasoned administrator and has been in politics since the day of the defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP) in 1993, serving as its Lagos State Chairman and that he has been holding sensitive leadership position in political parties from AC to ACN and APC.
“Without sounding immodest and I’m saying with all sense of responsibilities. My pedigree, my political experience, sagacity and capacity, I look round, put all of us, the aspirants on the same stair, I surpass everyone. And I know the party will resent someone like me who is marketable and saleable. I’m marketable, I’m saleable in all ramifications compared to all other contestants. Go and do research, use your own parameters to X-ray all of us and see who is most qualified and let people form their opinion and decide on us.”
He hinted that part of his agenda if elected the council chairman is to provide state-of-the-art ambulances within 100 days of his assumption of office in each of the four zones of the community for emergence.
He explained that the ambulances will be ready to pick any resident in need at any point in time to the hospital for immediate treatment, saying there would be emergency toll numbers which the residents can call as the ambulances would be working round the clock.
However, Osho, who pledged to accept the outcome of the election in good faith, said he would continue to aspire for the position or higher position as directed by the party at any given opportunity despite the fact that he has aspired for three times even after his first term in office as the local council chairman if elected.
