One of the leading aspirants on the platform of All Progressives Congress (APC), has said he has all it takes to win the forthcoming governorship primary election of the party without any endorsement.
Jimoh Ibrahim made the bold declaration while addressing Newsmen on Thursday, after the submission of his Expression of Interest and Nomination Forms at the APC National Secretariat, in Abuja.
The business Mogul turned politician noted that in a democratic society, no serious politician waits to be endorsed before winning such an election, adding that President Bola Tinubu was not endorsed by anyone, yet he emerged the party’s flag bearer in 2022.
His words: “It is not wise to say you are looking for endorsement, politics is about democracy and democracy is about number.
“Somebody sitting down, wanting to be endorsed, that’s not realistic.
“Was Asiwaju endorsed, at the end of the day, he won the election with no endorsement from anybody, you believe it is your turn.
“As I am leaving here, by Monday, I am paying 140 million naira to the party for 100,000 delegates membership form.”
Senator Jimoh said he’s not a greenhorn in Ondo State politics as he has been in the race as far back as 2003, when he contested with the likes of Late former governors of the State, Olusegun Agagu and Adebayo Adefarati.
He boasted that his victory at the 2023 National Assembly elections is unprecedented as APC has never won any seat in Ondo State senatorial district until then.
“I have several degrees and PhDs which you can all see and I have attached them to the forms submitted.
“Beyond that, I ran for the governorship election in 2003 Baba Adefarati, Agagu and myself, Agagu came first with about 655,000 votes, the other followed with about 233,000 votes. I followed with about 196, 000 votes very close, they are all dead and I am the only person alive.
“I stood for election about two years ago or one and a half years ago, and now I’m at the office of the Senate.
“I am the first APC senator in Ondo South, since APC was formed they have not been able to win an election in Ondo South. I came with some Cambridge data analytics and I was able to win that election, I scored 111,677 votes against Agbola Ajayi,there was over 60,000 votes difference amongst all the contestants.
“For a few that I know, our strategy of winning this election is very clear and straightforward.
“I can assure you that we are going to win the next election, we have a movement that was set up, we have collected data of over 400,000, I have visited over 120 wards,” he said.
Justifying borrowing in government, Jimoh said it’s not a bad thing as it is one of many other things that defines a smart leader.
“Any leader that is not borrowing is not smart. What I told you on the television is that our GDP to debt ratio is 40%. America is 135%. China is 45%. Britain has one 105% GDP to debt ratio.
“Now what does it mean? It means that America has borrowed 135% more than its total worth. So when Asiwaju came, what I advised was that, take the GDP to debt ratio to 90%.
“So, borrow an additional 50% of your worth, which can amount to about $100 billion, when you bridge that, pay up the existing debt of $77 billion and negotiate it. When you tell the debt creditor that will pay you today, they give you a 50% discount, so you will get that 35 billion naira in exchange for 77.
“And I said the easiest way to do this is get the EXIM bank in groups, group one, group two, group three group four. There are over 300 EXIM banks in the world.
“If you have done that, you wouldn’t have any problem and the naira to dollar will fall.
So I’m talking from the perspective of my professional education as someone who has a PhD from the University of Cambridge, in business.
“Ondo state is not about debt or no debt. I’ll make Ondo State great,” he promised.
