Nigeria Content Online

A governorship
candidate of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party {PDP} in Ogun State,
Isiaka Gboyega, yesterday said he was not threatened by the emergence
of Tunji Olurin, said to be the choice of former president, Olusegun
Obasanjo, as his main challenger for the party’s ticket.

Mr. Gboyega, who
was recently announced consensus candidate by some politicians from the
Ogun West senatorial zone, the same zone to which Mr. Olurin belongs,
said the party primaries would determine the flagbearer of the party.

Speaking with
journalists at his campaign office in Abeokuta, Mr. Gboyega said a
majority of those rooting for Mr. Olurin are not card carrying members
of the party, and cannot be delegates during the party primaries.

“If any elders tell
us we don’t have the experience to run the state, we will tell them
that please am sorry sir, this is an insult. Now, for anybody to say
with my little background, with my little experience, that I don’t have
experience to run the state, I think that would be an insult. I would
tell them so politely,” he said.

Behind the wheel

Still on the
allegation that Mr. Olurin is the more experienced person best suited
for the job, Mr. Gboyega said the situation is best likened to a
scenario where a 60-year-old man, who probably have been driving over
the last 40 years, now has a son who started driving 20 years after.

“They want to
travel and the man will now say, because I am the one that has more
experience, let me be at the wheel. It is not done,” he said.

He also said it was
an insult to people of his generation to be told they could not hold
the levers of power, saying it was time younger people take charge of
the country.

“Nobody can be telling us about experience now because we also know
the kind of experience that people have when they were also taking over
leadership some 20, 30 years ago,” he said.