2023: APC’s commitment to good governance will help defeat PDP, retain presidency — Fashola

By Tunde Opalana

Ahead of 2023, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has said that its commitment to good governance has confounded the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Daily Times gathered.

The party is confident that the provision of good governance will guarantee its retention of political power beyond the Buhari Presidency.

A staunch member of the APC and Minister for Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola during an interaction with journalists in Abuja said the PDP presently is bereft of ideas on how to upstage the APC come 2023.

Harping on the need for the APC to deliver on pre-election promises, he said “,to  retain power in 2023, certainly if we keep our promises, is that simple. That’s politics. If you do what you said you will do even if you don’t do 100% and they see that you are making progress, they will even want you to finish some of what you started”.

Convinced that the APC has impressed Nigerians in governance, Fashola said “our opposition has to think better than us in order to defeat us. Right now, they are not doing that. When it’s election time they should come and meet us”.

“APC is committed to good governance because I think the best politics is good governance. The beauty of it for me is the opportunity it gives to impact people’s lives. We have elections only once in four years but we have responsibility to provide good governance every day and that’s the culture”.

However, the minister cautioned against emphasis on zoning arrangement in politics, saying it remains conventional arrangement rather than constitutional.

He said the APC has not zoned its presidential ticket for the 2023 polls to any of the six geopolitical zones.

He said “first let’s talk about law, let’s talk about agreement, the law is the Constitution. Constitution decides the age which you can contest certain offices and there is nothing in the Constitution that says zoning.

All political parties are like clubs where you write agreements. Just like a social club, we can decide that it is the youngest person who will be the chairman of the club or we can decide that it is the oldest person or the next female or the next male, that is the matter of agreement between people.

“But the Constitution that sets up the climate of political parties’ formation does not prescribe zoning. The truth is that what makes an agreement specification is the honour in which it is made not whether it is written. If it was written there would be no court cases of breach of contract, because people goes to court based on document that is written and signed.  But the private agreement you make with your brother and sister can be breached”.

The minister commended the APC Caretaker Committee under the leadership of You’ve state governor, Mai Mala Buni and he called on stakeholders and members to give maximum support to the Committee.

Though agreed that it was crisis that necessitated the committee, he said it must be respected and allowed to do its job.

Fashola said “every support that the Caretaker Committee requires we will provide if it’s within our reach to do so. I am in touch with him (Buni), at the end of the day we are governed by rules.

“I know quite a number of them on a personal basis. So let’s support them to achieve the immediate mandate of their responsibility and they brought some stability at least we won an election”.

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