APC Factions United Behind Tinubu’s Re-election, Oshiomhole Insists

·Says disputes over campaign positions, youth leadership mere distractions

·Defends Tinubu’s decision to limit campaign rallies

**Sunday Aborisade **in Abuja

The Deputy Director General (Mobilisation) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council, Senator Adams Oshiomhole, has dismissed concerns over internal disagreements within the ruling party, insisting that all factions and political interests are united behind President Bola Tinubu’s re-election bid in 2027.

Oshiomhole, who represents Edo North Senatorial District, described disagreements over campaign appointments, youth leadership positions and the involvement of different political tendencies in the emerging coalition arrangement as distractions, maintaining that the commitment of APC members and allied political groups to Tinubu’s second-term ambition was not in doubt.

The former Edo State governor, who spoke yesterday morning during an interview on Arise Television’s The Morning Show, said the real test of political commitment was not the possession of campaign titles but the ability of party members to mobilise voters at the grassroots.

Addressing concerns over reported disagreements surrounding the APC’s youth leadership and the relationship between the party’s campaign structures and various political groups, Oshiomhole said every committed party member had a responsibility to contribute to Tinubu’s electoral success.

He particularly dismissed the controversy surrounding the party’s youth leadership, arguing that occupying a national position did not automatically confer the responsibility of controlling youth mobilisation across the country.

According to him, the emphasis should be on what individual party members can deliver in their respective polling units, wards and local government areas rather than the titles they occupy.

He said, “I think the issue of Israel (national youth leader) is just a complete distraction. I have spoken to him. I said, ‘Israel, go and work in your unit. Go and work in your ward. You are a party youth leader’.

“It doesn’t make it obligatory that you must lead the youth. It is not Israel who is going to mobilise the youth in my village or mobilise the youth in my polling unit. So, all these people looking for big titles are completely meaningless as far as I am concerned,” he said.

Oshiomhole recalled that he had told Tinubu before the 2023 presidential election that he was prepared to undertake any assignment, regardless of its status, provided it contributed to the party’s electoral success.

He said, “I am on record as telling President Tinubu in 2023 that even to be a sweeper, if my sweeping the office would help the process of his being elected president, I would be quite happy to be called the sweeper of the campaign headquarters.

“I don’t even need to be in the campaign headquarters to be able to work and contribute to the success of the election.

“The best evidence is to look at the result from my polling unit, my community, my ward and even my senatorial zone, where I have direct responsibility.”

The senator maintained that genuine political mobilisation extended beyond the official campaign council, stressing that every committed APC member should mobilise friends, relatives, associates and supporters to vote for the party.

On the emerging coalition arrangement involving political parties and influential political figures supporting Tinubu, Oshiomhole said there was no disagreement among the different interests over the president’s re-election.

Speaking in his capacity as Deputy Director General of Mobilisation of the Tinubu campaign organisation, he said the various political groups had demonstrated their commitment through both public declarations and concrete actions.

He said, “My understanding is that all the sides in this debate are unanimous. There is no doubt. They are all committed.

“They have expressed it, not only by mouth but in action, that they are working to ensure that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is re-elected. So, there is no dispute about that,” he said.

Oshiomhole, however, explained that political parties supporting Tinubu at the presidential level were not necessarily required to abandon their identities or surrender their platforms for National Assembly and state assembly elections.

He cited the example of Anambra State Governor, Professor Chukwuma Soludo, who, according to him, had expressed support for Tinubu’s re-election while retaining the freedom to pursue his political interests through the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).

He argued that there was nothing contradictory about a political party supporting a presidential candidate from another party while fielding its candidates for other elective positions.

He said, “Governor Soludo of Anambra State has said that, for the presidential election, APGA and himself are going to support President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

“However, I am aware that he has not said he will support APC senators in Anambra State. Nor has he promised to support APC candidates for the House of Representatives or House of Assembly.

“So why should I question the fact that he is supporting us at the presidential level? That should not deny him the right to also field candidates on his own party platform, which is APGA.

“He has not dissolved APGA as a precondition for supporting the president, and I do not see any contradiction,” he said.

Oshiomhole maintained that the same political arrangement could apply in other states, arguing that electoral alliances did not necessarily require participating parties to dissolve their structures or surrender their independent political interests.

On the controversy surrounding the involvement of the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, in the political realignments, Oshiomhole rejected suggestions that his participation made the arrangement fundamentally different from that involving other political leaders.

He challenged the argument that Wike’s involvement should attract a different interpretation, insisting that political alliances should be assessed by their objectives rather than personal sentiments about their participants.

The senator also defended Tinubu’s decision not to embark on campaign rallies across all 36 states, arguing that the ruling party had the prerogative to determine the most effective approach to its electoral mobilisation.

Responding to questions about the apparent contradiction between the president’s decision to limit campaign appearances on the grounds of focusing on governance and his religious trip to Saudi Arabia for the lesser Hajj, Oshiomhole said there was no conflict between religious obligations and the responsibilities of governance.

He recalled that former President Goodluck Jonathan had undertaken Christian pilgrimage to Israel, while former President Muhammadu Buhari also travelled to Saudi Arabia for the Umrah.

According to him, the president’s decision to embark on a religious exercise should not be interpreted as abandoning governance.

“The president did not say he would stop worshipping God in order to be able to govern. He didn’t say that. There is no contradiction between the two,” he said.

Oshiomhole further argued that presidential campaigns did not necessarily depend on the physical presence of the candidate in every state, insisting that established party structures at the polling-unit, ward and local government levels could sustain nationwide mobilisation.

He said, “It is our right, it is our prerogative to decide where we go, where the president goes and where he doesn’t go. That should not be your business.

“It is not the fact of the president’s presence in a location that determines the success of a campaign. When you have a rally in the state capital, does that cover every polling unit? Does that cover every ward?

“We have party officers in every polling unit, every ward and every local government, and all of them are campaigning for the president.”

On the federal government’s proposed $22 billion external borrowing programme, Oshiomhole defended the administration’s decision, arguing that borrowing should be assessed principally by the purpose for which the funds would be deployed rather than the mere fact that the government had decided to borrow.

He disclosed that President Tinubu had formally written to the Senate, as required by law, to notify the National Assembly of the government’s borrowing proposal.

According to him, the communication had been referred to the Senate Committee on Foreign and Local Debts for detailed examination, including the proposed projects and the specific purposes for which the funds would be spent.

Oshiomhole said the committee would scrutinise the proposal, interact with the Ministry of Finance and subsequently present its findings to the Senate for consideration and debate.

He cautioned against drawing conclusions about the details of the borrowing arrangement before the relevant Senate committee completed its assignment.

The Senator said, “I am convinced that you can’t have sustainable growth and development without solid infrastructure. But I hear you talking about the details.

“Those details, in line with the rules of the Senate, have been referred to the Senate Committee on Foreign and Local Debts. They will go through the details of the request and the purpose for which each of these sums will be spent.

“Thereafter, the matter will come back to the plenary of the Senate, and those details will be the subject of debate and deliberation,” he said.

The former APC national chairman argued that borrowing was a legitimate instrument of economic management, provided the funds were invested in productive ventures capable of generating sufficient economic returns to support repayment.

He drew a distinction between borrowing to finance recurrent consumption and borrowing to develop infrastructure that could stimulate economic activities and generate revenue.

He said, “In principle, I believe that every country borrows. The real issue is borrowing to do what?

“If you are borrowing to feed, many will say, myself included, that that would be wasteful. If you borrow to build a house and people can see the building, then that is not wasteful because, in paying back, the building will be able to generate income on its own.

“So I think we should be speaking more about borrowing to do what, not the fact of borrowing. There is nothing strange in it,” he said.

He added that rising public debt was not peculiar to Nigeria, noting that several advanced economies also relied on borrowing to finance development and address economic challenges.

Oshiomhole, however, maintained that the critical consideration should remain the productive application of borrowed funds and the economic benefits expected from the investments.

The senator also addressed the controversy surrounding human trafficking and prostitution involving Nigerian women in Italy, particularly those from Edo State.

He rejected attempts to portray human trafficking as a problem peculiar to Edo State or Nigeria, arguing that the demand for prostitution in destination countries must also be addressed if the international community genuinely intended to eliminate the practice.

Recalling his discussions with the Italian ambassador to Nigeria during his tenure as Edo State governor, Oshiomhole said he had challenged European authorities to complement efforts by Nigerian governments to discourage trafficking by educating their citizens about the consequences of prostitution.

He explained that many of the Nigerians involved had travelled to Italy through legitimate visa arrangements, arguing that destination countries also had responsibilities to monitor immigration compliance and prevent the exploitation of vulnerable migrants.

According to him, efforts to combat trafficking would remain incomplete if attention was concentrated exclusively on those supplying the victims without addressing the demand that sustained the illicit trade.

He said, “The fact of economics is that where there is a strong demand for anything, there will be a supply. You can criminalise the supply. You can do whatever you can to minimise it, but the supply will remain for as long as the demand is strong.

“Therefore, we need both Europeans and Africans to work together to put an end to this issue of trafficking.

“I don’t think Africans should just accept being demonised as if we are the only criminals. It takes two to be involved in prostitution,” he said.

Oshiomhole called for stronger international cooperation and public enlightenment campaigns in both Nigeria and European countries to address the social and economic conditions sustaining human trafficking.