The Convener of the Alternative Movement, Otunba Segun Showunmi, has commenced grassroots mobilisation in Ogun State ahead of the 2027 presidential election, declaring his support for the re-election of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Showunmi spoke on Saturday during a sensitisation and mobilisation programme organised in Abeokuta in support of Tinubu’s re-election bid.
He said the mobilisation would cover the six local government areas in Ogun Central, adding that he had already empowered grassroots supporters to canvass for votes at the polling-unit level.
‘I’ve empowered them, I’ve told them to enter the polling unit and start the polling unit work.
‘Thereafter, I’m going to go to each of the six local governments in Ogun Central.
‘We are not social media politicians. We are not television politicians. I am a grassroots politician through and through,’ he said.
The former governorship aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said he was not worried by what he described as growing opposition to Tinubu from politicians in the South.
He said those aspiring to challenge Tinubu were ‘wasting their resources’, while appealing to the Yoruba people to support the President for another four-year term.
‘You will never see the moon and the star come out when the sun is out. Anybody, especially from Yoruba nation, who is calling himself anything, when the sun is out, is wasting the time,’ he said.
Showunmi reiterated that those aspiring to challenge Tinubu were ‘wasting their resources’.
He appealed to Yoruba voters to support Tinubu, warning against a situation in which the North produces more votes for the President than the South-West.
‘Anyone who says he is going to be running up and down television, deceiving himself, wasting the little resources he has, claiming that he can win presidency here, he is a joker. This election is Bola Tinubu’s election to win. I have come home to beg the Yoruba people that you will not be ashamed.
‘Because when the election is over, and the people of North-East, and the people of North-West, and the people of North-Central produce more votes than you, then where will you put your face?
‘Therefore, it is time to work now. We are back to 2003,’ he said.
Showunmi, who was a former spokesperson to former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, also criticised his former principal’s proposal to restore the petrol subsidy.
Atiku, the African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate for the 2027 election, has said he would restore the petrol subsidy if elected.
Showunmi argued that returning to subsidy would amount to taking Nigeria ‘back to Egypt’.
‘We have tried subsidies in this country. We started starting it from 1973. And between 1973 and date, we have seen the result. If it had worked, wouldn’t we have seen it?’ Showunmi asked.
‘We have seen that nothing has worked. They couldn’t even repair a refinery for so many years. And one private sector person has run a refinery.’
He described proponents of a return to subsidy as ‘overtly and inordinately ambitious’, insisting that Nigeria should not return to what he called the old path.
‘Forward ever, backward never,’ he said.