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The South West chapter of Next Level Consolidation Forum (NLCF), on Wednesday held its strategic meeting in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, to draw out direction for its campaign strategy ahead the 2023 presidential election.
The group, which is the leading campaigner of the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, during the meeting resolved to give its “all” to ensure the emergence of the former Lagos State Governor as the next president of Nigeria in 2023.
In his opening remarks at the meeting, the group’s zonal coordinator, Hon. Popoola Adesina, described the emergence of Tinubu as the APC presidential candidate during the party’s national convention on May 30 as an act of God.
Popoola, who insisted that it is the turn of Yoruba to assume leadership of Nigeria in 2023, urged members of the group to leave no stone unturned by ensuring victory for Tinubu at the 2023 poll.
Popoola, who is a Special Adviser to Ogun State Governor, reminded members that NLCF is an integral part of over 500 Tinubu Support Groups across the country, charging them to ensure that the APC presidential candidate gets 85 to 90 per cent of total votes in the South West.
Popoola applauded the efforts of the National Co-ordinator of the group, Barrister Oladosu Oladipo, for his resilient and good leadership in nurturing the group to its present level.
Speaking, the National Co-ordinator, Oladipo charged members to see this assignment as unique, and must be pursued with lots of vigour.
He recalled that the clamour for power shift to the South West after Buhari’s presidency started in 2017, adding that “since the issue of Yoruba presidency came up, he had never waver on his stand.”
Oladipo urged stakeholders in all the six South West states of the to “organise, themselves.”
“We should organise by identifying like minds even in other parties, relate with them and encourage them to see the need in propagating our objective,” Oladipo said.
The septuagenarian said Yoruba presidency in 2023 will be a good model for Nigeria, maintaining the importance of consolidating on voting strength in South West.
Oladipo called on members to remain steadfast and committed to the group, saying “apart from North West, we are next with over 18 million registered voters.”
Prof. Soji Adejumo, the National Secretary of Yoruba Patriots Movement (YPM) commended the leadership of the group for all their past and present efforts and advised members not to take the assignment lightly.
“We should not assume that Tinubu is from the South West and relax, but ensure that APC presidential candidate scores up to 70 to 80 per cent of vote cast in the region.”
Olurotimi Adeleye, Lagos State Coordinator of NLCF called for the adoption of strategy to mobilise people with disabilities.
Adeleye also stated the importance of mobilising people with permanent voter cards and not just anybody, who cannot serve the purpose.
In a related development, Popoola hinted that the group will set up offices in each state of the country to facilitate ease of reaching the grassroots
The meeting was attended by stakeholders from all the South West states, including representatives from Kwara State.