‘APC control couldn’t deliver votes in 2023’ — Aregbesola
Rauf Aregbesola, national secretary of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), says the results of the 2023 presidential election showed that control of state governments by the All Progressives Congress (APC) did not guarantee electoral victory.
He spoke on Tuesday in Abuja at the public presentation of The Loyalist, a book written by Bolaji Abdullahi, the ADC’s national publicity secretary.
Aregbesola said voting patterns in the South-West and South-East during the last general election contradicted the belief that governors could impose results on the electorate, despite holding political power in their states.
His comments come amid a wave of defections by governors and other political office holders from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the APC, a development the ruling party has played down as insignificant.
Reacting to the defections, Aregbesola urged the APC and electoral authorities to ensure that future elections are free, fair and credible.
“Despite controlling almost all the South-West states, the APC’s best performance was about 55 per cent of the votes, while other parties shared the rest.
“In Lagos, the party lost the state, and in the South-East, the APC recorded just 5.8 per cent of the total votes. These outcomes show clearly that governors do not win elections — the people do,” he said.
The former Osun State governor said Nigeria’s democracy would only be strengthened through a transparent electoral process that reflects the will of the electorate.
