The South-West Agenda for Asiwaju 2023 (SWAGA’23) has said Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and former Lagos State governor, will win the presidential primary of the ruling APC irrespective of the mode of primaries adopted by the party.
Speaking in an interview with DAILY INDEPENDENT, Honourable Bosun Oladele, SWAGA’s National Secretary, said the group during its formation has made provisions for whatever primaries the party will adopt by enlisting the support of former National Assembly members who are statutory delegates in the case of indirect primary and grassroots politicians who can effectively mobilise people in the case of direct primary.
He said “People have been talking about whether direct or indirect primary should be adopted. The idea is that every former member of the National Assembly, be it Senator or Reps are automatic statutory delegates.
If they say it is indirect primary tomorrow, even if they have gone to another party, wherever they are, they are among the delegates that will vote by rights and by law for all the parties. For example, I am from Oyo state. Every four years, Oyo state will turn out 14 House of Reps members and statutorily, every state has three senators”.
“So, if you look at Oyo state, assuming we are able to get 14 Reps and three senators, that is 17 votes already in the delegates’ election. So, we decided to bring former members of the national assembly together, with the belief that we already have some votes in the kitty in case the indirect primary is adopted.
With the benefit of hindsight, we also look at the possibility of direct primary where all party members will vote. So, we decided to bring in notable politicians at the grassroots level that have a bond with the people at the grassroots. These include former and serving local government chairmen, house of assembly members, councillors and other party leaders that could mobilise support for Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
“That was why we had members who were not national assembly members in the group. That was the concept of SWAGA. At the time we were forming SWAGA, we just believed that we should have a political pressure group for advocacy on behalf of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
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“We started by constituting the Central Working Committee made up of two members per state. When we got to Lagos state, we had to accommodate four members because of the size of the state. Honourable Oye Ojo did a great job in terms of networking. We were all driven by the passion to see what we can do for Asiwaju given the fact that he has done so much for the South-West and the progressive family.”
