By Williams Anuku
The Christopher Imumolen, the presidential candidate of Accord Party has posited that having deep financial mussle was not necessarily a guarantee for a new President to emerge in the country.
Imumolen said many antecedents in the Nigerian electoral process upholds his assertion.
His assertion was also in reaction to a statement credited to foremost lawyer and educationist, Elder statesman, Chief Afe Babalola who had claimed that money would play a major role in determining who wins the forthcoming presidential elections.
Babalola had made the claims in Ado Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital as part of his new year message to Nigerians.
He insinuated that the winner of February’s presidential polls would likely go to a candidate who had a seemingly inexhaustible war chest of cash to sway votes his way.
But poking holes in Babalola’s claims, Imomulen while reacting to the statement on Channels TV talkshow, ‘Politics Today’ said several instances abound to support his position.
His words, “With due respect, I would want to counter the claims by our most learned elder statesman, Afe Babalola that only persons with the deepest pocket in this year’s presidential race will ultimately win the elections”.
According to him, the 1999 presidential elections between Chief Olusegun Obasanjo of the PDP and Chief Olu Falae of the then AD. Obasanjo, won that elections despite not having the funds to throw around. Infact, he had just returned from prison where he had no money nor played active politics before the elections.
Butressing his points further, the Presidential hopeful for 2023 said, then, came his successor Umar Yar’Adua who had just finished his tenure as Katsina State governor and wasn’t one you could refer to as someone who could, solely on the strength of his wealth, win the country’s presidency.
He said Yar Adua had more opponents in the race who could have beaten him hands down but cash never determined who clinched the presidency. So at the end, he won.
“For this year’s presidential poll, I think the people’s genuine wish to see a change from the old ways of doing things to a new one could prove the determining factor, rather than the now outdated method of trying to buy people’s conscience through prodigal spending that might not produce any results because our once gullible people have become wiser,” he asserted.
