Supporters of former military president, Gen. Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (rtd), in Lagos yesterday flagged off campaign in the state saying that President Goodluck Jonathan is a good man but lacks a structure within the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to win the party’s primaries.
•IBB supporters in Lagos yesterday. Photo Simon Ateba.
The supporters, in their hundreds, marched along the Opebi-Allen Axis of Ikeja brandishing IBB’s posters and singing songs of victory.
“We are here to show that IBB has grassroots support in Lagos. That is why you saw people coming out in their thousands to show their support for him. We believe so much in IBB, because since he left no other leader has been able to match what he did as President,” Prince Ebunola Martins, coordinator of IBB Campaign Organisation in Lagos, told journalists at a press briefing after the march.
Ebunola told journalists that IBB remains the most popular candidate within the PDP and scares other candidates to the extent that others are trying to stop him, adding that they will fail.
“Everywhere we have gone, IBB has remained the favourite candidate and if he were not, they will not be scared of him.
“IBB is the man to beat. President Jonathan is a good man but he does not have a structure that can put him there. To be President, you can’t just wake up and win. There has to be a structure. That structure, IBB has it. That is why he was able to bring Obasanjo out of prison and instal him as President,” he said.
As Ebunola spoke about IBB’s popularity in the state, other supporters nodded their heads in agreement and sometimes, clapped.
Ebunola said that when former President Olusegun Obasanjo picked Jonathan as the running mate of the late President Yar’Adua, he had no support in the South West.
He said that with the construction of the third Mainland Bridge during IBB’s administration, traffic gridlocks have greatly reduced in the state.
“There is no local government in Nigeria that IBB did not empower. In Lagos, it was during IBB that the local governments went from eight to 20. Women were empowered and villages were for the first time connected to electricity. During IBB’s time, money was able to flow not only within the rich but also to the poor and that is why we are supporting him, that is why Nigerians want him to come back,” he said.
—Simon Ateba