Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja
The Minister of Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, Monday insisted that the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate in this month’s presidential election, Mr. Bola Tinubu, would win the poll.
Stressing that the APC has ‘momentum’, Fashola who spoke on Channels Television Monday night, said the other presidential candidates were clearly behind the APC in terms of preparation, insisting that elections remain a game of numbers.
He argued that if the opposition, including the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party (LP) and others could not defeat the APC as one house in 2019, there was no way they would be able to defeat the ruling party as a divided house in 2023.
“Now, if you were not enough when you were together, how can you be enough when you’re broken up into three?” he asked.
He also derided several opinion polls, which had announced Peter Obi as the clear winner of the February 25 presidential election, insisting that the polls were not just biased, but non-representative of the country’s diverse voting population.
“I used to laugh when I watch them as they are self-serving and sample was inadequate,” he added. “Where is their path to victory?” he queried.
In defending the Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, Fashola stated that although new challenges had arisen, the difference between the previous administration and this, was that Buhari has solved the problems they denied existed.
“When they were hiding in the Villa, we were out there confronting the problems. We haven’t finished solving the problems. But there’s a stark difference in momentum. We moved the needle,” he maintained.
On the rising inflationary pressure on the economy, Fashola stated that it was same in most parts of the world and not a Nigerian problem.
While empathising with Nigerians on the current challenges caused by naira and fuel shortages, he noted that some of them were the result of policy, saying it was the responsibility of public servants, especially those responsible for those policies to look back and tweak them.
“And if the policy is not working, perhaps you have to readjust… and I’ve had cause to reverse myself when I saw that my policies were causing unintended results.
“And so I have no responsibility on those two areas, and therefore I cannot speak to the details of the facts that are available to the policymakers. But the important thing is that those policies are not yet delivering the results and are delivering a lot of inconvenience,” he argued.
Fashola denied promising that the APC would fix Nigeria’s power supply challenge in six months.
“One of the things that were said about me was that I said we would electrify Nigeria in six months. It was a lie that I allowed to run until the day I asked my media men to play the tape back and since then that lie has gone,” he maintained.
Fashola further promised that by May, the Second Niger Bridge would be fully delivered. He blamed the local circumstances such as the sit-at-home order every Monday in the East in the last two years, for the slow pace of work.
“If you look at the number of days we’ve lost over two years, you must factor it into some of these moving targets,” he argued.
