Former Senate Leader and Oyo State Coordinator of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s re-election campaign, Senator Teslim Folarin, has urged All Progressives Congress (APC) stakeholders in the state to unite and work for the victory of all the party’s candidates in the 2027 general elections.
Folarin reaffirmed his commitment, alongside former Minister of Power Adebayo Adelabu and other party leaders, to ensuring the emergence of APC candidates at all levels in Oyo State.
He spoke on Tuesday after a meeting with party stakeholders in Ibadan, the state capital, where he formally informed them of his appointment as the Oyo State Coordinator of President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope 2.0 campaign.
“I have come to formally intimate the party that the President has graciously appointed me as his coordinator for the 2027 election. You can’t do anything without the party, so I thought it would make sense for us to come down to meet them and rub minds,” he said.
Addressing concerns over aggrieved party stakeholders, Folarin assured members that efforts would be made to reconcile differences and bring everyone on board ahead of the elections.
He expressed confidence that all stakeholders would eventually unite behind the party’s candidates, stressing that personal grievances should not overshadow the collective interest of the APC.
“We are all talking. By the time we come and launch here formally, I expect all of them to be here. They are all committed to the party. There is nothing wrong in being aggrieved, but at the end of the day, you have to look at the big picture, which is the party. These are all party people, I can assure you,” he said.
On whether aggrieved members would support the APC governorship candidate, Senator Sharafadeen Alli, Folarin maintained that party loyalty required members to work for the candidate who had emerged through the party’s process.
“Everybody has to. When you say you are a party man, there is no ambiguity there. They are also party men, and what it means is that they are all going to work for him,” he said.
Folarin acknowledged that disagreements over the process of selecting candidates were common in politics, recalling that some party members had also expressed dissatisfaction when he emerged as a candidate.
“You don’t have to like everybody. You may have issues with the process, but at the end of the day, candidates have emerged. I recall when I was also a candidate, a lot of people were aggrieved. It is the name of the game.
“If we don’t come together, we are all risking political oblivion, and we don’t want to retire now,” he added.
Speaking on the campaign strategy, Folarin said the APC would highlight the achievements of President Tinubu’s administration to persuade voters to support his re-election bid.
He also disclosed plans to engage political parties without presidential candidates or those whose candidates have limited electoral strength, with the aim of building broader support for Tinubu.
“We are going to use Mr President’s achievements to drive this campaign, so we will have to do well in the first election. We also intend to start visiting some parties who have no presidential candidate or whose candidates are weak. The message is, let’s come together and support Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu,” he said.
