As campaigns for the forthcoming elections scheduled for March 28 and April 11, draw closer, Ondo State Governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, has tipped the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)’s presidential candidate, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, for victory, insisting that he would beat his strongest opponent, General Muhammadu Buhari (retd), of the All Progressives Party (APC), hands down during the exercise.
Mimiko, who made the declaration in a chat with newsmen at Iyiola Omisore’s residence, Ile-Ife, Osun State, on his way to receive Jonathan during his courtesy visit to the Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuade, at the weekend, expressed optimism that the incumbent president would clinch more than 75 per cent votes in the South West.
The governor also dismissed APC’s moves to take over from the ruling party in May, as a mere propaganda, which, he stressed, would not affect Jonathan’s chances in Yoruba land as well as the entire country.
He said: “With all sense of modesty, President Jonathan will have more than 75 per cent votes in Yoruba land in the presidential election. APC is well grounded in propaganda and the super structure of their programmes is propaganda. But their propaganda will not stop Jonathan from coasting to victory on March 28.
“Jonathan has the political goodwill that would ensure his victory in the forthcoming presidential election. Apart from the huge and landmark transformation his administration has brought to this country in his first tenure, his party, the PDP, has been an advocate of true federalism in Nigeria,” Mimiko stressed.
“For so long, we have been the advocates of true federalism in Nigeria. So, president Jonathan has better chances of winning again.”
Mimiko, however, expressed dissatisfaction with the level of INEC’s preparedness for the elections, which, he said, motivated the postponement, insisting that if the elections were not postponed, the exercise would have ended in fiasco.