….We are not an APC Group but a Volunteer and collection of civil groups- – —Lawrence-Ogidan (DG)
By Adeyemi Robinson-Adefioye, Lagos
The Director General of the Asiwaju Volunteers and Civil groups, Honorable Abiodun Lawrence-Ogidan said theorganisation has concluded plans to raise fifty million electoral Army for Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu in all states in the country ahead of 2023 election.
Lawrence-Ogidan said the Asiwaju Volunteers group is an Organization created by volunteers who serve as coordinators for all State civil groups, NGO’s, Bodies and all lovers of Asiwaju 2023 Target in order to form a big group under the umbrella for all Action Groups and volunteers.
Lawrence-Ogidan stressed that their aim is to provide a standing electoral Army for Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu “ We have a set target of 50million electoral army and we know that hundreds or thousands of different groups who are already in place supporting ‘Asiwaju’ either from the Eastern part of the country, Western part, Northern and South-South. The support is large, even the market women, the road workers, transport workers etc.
“ What we are doing is that we are collating all groups and we are let everybody to know that we are not in any competition and that the only competition is our 2023 mandate.
According to him,” we are from this part of Africa that says action speaks louder than words, we don’t need to wait for Asiwaju to say I want to do this or that, if we put the action in place to let him know he has our support and our back for this 2023 election. As far as we know Asiwaju is going for the 2023 and if he now tells us that he is not, then we will accept but as far as we are concern, he is going and we are ready from the grassroots to the electoral”.
The DG hinted that Asiwaju Volunteers and Civil group has branches in all the 36 states of the federation including the FCT pointing out that in each Local Government of each state, there are coordinators on ground that oversee the activities within the local councils.
“ For our own body we have coordinators in every state, there are coordinators in every local government, the beauty about own group is that; we are not a solitary group campaigning or just putting ‘ASUWAJU’ forward but we are a coordinating group, We encourage all other groups that are in place now to register with us, it is not that we are down grading them, is not that we are making them inferior , even some of them are even superior but what we want for them is to bring their members list , their data, we are collating it because we want to make sure that they are in the 50 million we are targeting and so that by the time we forward the data base of fifty million and when the election comes, if anybody raise a dust about the numbers then we would able to defend it through the data base.
“What we are doing here is like a backroom work, a technical work , though we are not plenty but the Group itself have states coordinators and words coordinators, and other group like mobilizations which we have in place to raise the awareness of this movement and to promote the group for’ ASUWAJU’ 2023”.
He emphasized that when His Excellency Bola Tinubu was the Governor of Lagos state his Blue print for the state still speaks up till date which other states in the country are tapping from
Lawrence– Ogidan further explained that it was during the Tinubu era that Lagos State experienced Security Trust Fund, made the RRS much better , CDC was developed to mentioned few in terms of security, Asiwaju has track record and in economy, Lagos State IGI was higher without federal Government aid.
“I am telling you that you have to look at the antecedence of who you are talking about here, When Asiwaju was a Governor we see the Blue print he laid and put in place. Let us talk about security, it was during his time we started the Security Trust Fund, made the RRS much better even made it compact for the people, the CDC were developed , I mean in terms of security he made track record . even in terms of economy, you can not compare the IGI of Lagos state with other state why most states depend on money given by the Federal government but for Lagos, everybody knows that it IGI itself is more than the allocation coming from Federal government.
“This is a man that builds, for someone like me I can tell you that; this is a man that believed in professionalism because I am a professional in politics but I am not a professional politician, we have seen his (Asiwaju) works and we believed in it. Right now, we need someone who is professional and proactive and knows what is happening in grassroots ” Lawrence-Ogidan concluded.
Meanwhile, the Public Relations Officer of the ASIWAJU Volunteers, Yomi Bosude ,said the vision they have for the 50 million standing army is from grassroots level adding that they are working across the country in segment, “the work is in progress till they get to their destination which is seeing Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the President of the country”.
Mr Bosude further hinted that anyone that wants to register must surely go through the normal process which simply means, one must have he or her voter’s card and the person needs to belong to a group in order to know that person’s seriousness.
“I am sure that anyone that has a vision or understand, must first go through a process ,you have to belong to a group and if you want to come out as an individual, we will do a background check on you to know the person is indeed a genuine person because they will always be a mule in all system and if you don’t belong to a group then we will carefully vet you to know who you are.
“Over time other groups would definitely metamorphose, which means there are many pockets groups out their trying to show their support for ASIWAJU which it needs to be properly coordinated or annexed in order to know the group they need to belong , not that we are trying to undermine them but to have a control by administration.
According to Busude ” We expect that the opposition would surely come up with their stories but if they don’t, they are not doing their job as opposition. Like I said before it is a support group for the vision, it is not an APC Group, it is ASIWAJU Volunteers group. We have the man we are supporting because of his antecedence or his past records in Lagos.
