27th April, 2024
By Alaba Olusola Oke
Adekunle Ajayi on Saturday emerged as the governorship candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) for the Nov. 16 election in Ondo State.
Ajayi became victorious through affirmation by all 35 delegates of the party from the 18 local government areas of the state.
The consensus mode of the primary was monitored by the officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Comrade Olugbenga Arinkoluwa, who served as the 2024 AAC Governorship Election Committee Chair, said the party decided to pick Ajayi as its candidate after several meetings, believing he would represent the party well in the election.
Arinkoluwa explained that AAC is a party comprising people of intelligence, vision, and mission, adding that Ajayi would be cerebral enough to turn misfortune into fortune if elected as the next governor of the state.
“We did not ask him to bring money, but we decided that the person with vision, mission, and intelligence would be our candidate so that when he gets there as the governor, he would not have excuses to steal public money.
“He is not the type that will steal the commonwealth of the people to pay bank loans. He didn’t borrow any money and did not commit one naira to the party,” he stated.
In his acceptance speech, the AAC candidate said the contest was a long-time challenge that he needed to take up to correct the mismanagement of politics, the economy, and social development by insincere politicians in the state.
“Societal building has to do with how much you are involved, not age. Most of the special advisers have no thinking capacity for the development of the state.
“At the level of youth, most of us are deeply involved, from the level of student movement to people movement.
“Apart from being deeply involved, we also have intellectuals to build and defend agriculture and the environmental status of the state. With the level of understanding in the state, we think it is time to take center stage, not the side or back stage, for both growth and development of the state.
“We are going to reject all forms of neoliberalism policies in this state. We are not going to stand and watch as all raw materials of the state move to other climes,” he stated.
According to him, if elected governor, “I will advance what Pa Adekunle Ajasin did in building companies, industries to massively reduce unemployment.
Ajayi, a Sahara media correspondent, said that he would not transfer public funds to private hands if elected as governor, adding that he would make the state attractive so that doctors would not go abroad.
“We will have our own refinery. We are not just going to build hospitals but an advanced healthcare system. A situation where we will have viable and world-standard primary, secondary, and tertiary healthcare systems,” he said.