Ekiti Guber: Shettima Drums Support For Oyebanji’s Reelection At APC Mega Rally

Vice President Kashim Shettima on Tuesday embarked on a last-minute campaign for the reelection of the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate, Governor Biodun Oyebanji, for a second term in office ahead of Saturday’s gubernatorial election in Ekiti State.

He told the people of the state that the joint ticket of Governor Oyebanji and his deputy, Chief Mrs. Monisade Afuye, was a ticket of balance, experience, and continuity that deserved renewal, noting that instead of a routine contest in Saturday’s governorship poll, Ekiti was standing at the gate of a larger Nigerian journey.

Speaking in Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, during the APC Grand Finale Mega Rally, Shettima, who represented President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, maintained that continuity for Governor Oyebanji was an investment in the peace, progress, and future of the state.

Joined at the mega rally by APC governors, party leaders, National Assembly members, and ministers, among others, the Vice President said:

“The task before you is simple, sacred, and historic. Go out and vote. Speak to your neighbours. Speak to your families. Speak to your wards, your unions, your communities, and your friends. Tell them that continuity in Ekiti is not a favour to one man. It is an investment in the peace, progress, and future of this state.

“And so I ask you, sons and daughters of this proud land, to march to the polling units in your numbers and cast your votes for Biodun Oyebanji and his worthy deputy, Mrs. Monisade Afuye. Give them the mandate to finish the work they have so faithfully begun. Stand with them as steadfastly as they have stood with you.”

Shettima noted that the mammoth crowd that gathered at the Ekiti Parapo Pavilion, venue of the mega rally in Ado-Ekiti, was an indication that the people of the state were together with the APC and the government at the centre in the journey to make Nigeria better. He also extended the goodwill of President Bola Tinubu, noting that Ekiti State remained dear to the government.

Drumming support for the governor and his deputy, he said, rather than approaching leadership as a theatre, the governor understood that “government must touch the market woman, the teacher, the civil servant, the farmer, the student, the driver, the trader, and the family waiting for hope at the end of each month.”

Shettima stated that Oyebanji had shown dedication to the welfare of Ekiti people, carried himself with humility, governed with patience, and listened with respect, while working “with the calm strength of a man who knows that power is a loan from the people.”

He continued: “In Governor Oyebanji, Ekiti has a son who did not come to experiment with the state. He came prepared. He came with knowledge of the land. He came with respect for elders, regard for institutions, and a heart open to the young.

“He has not spent his time fighting shadows. He has spent it building bridges, strengthening trust, and keeping the machinery of government focused on service.”

Describing the joint ticket as one of balance, experience, and continuity that has worked and therefore deserves renewal, Shettima said APC’s stability was not an accident but a “product of sacrifice by noble leaders like Governor Oyebanji, leaders who understand that politics without discipline becomes confusion, and ambition without order becomes injury to the people.”

He observed that while other political parties “are busy fighting themselves, quarrelling over chairs, tearing their roofs in the rain, and asking the people to trust them with a house they cannot keep standing,” the APC has stayed together, disagreeing with maturity and resolving differences with purpose.

He promised that the President Tinubu-led Federal Government would work hand in hand with the governor, his deputy, and the people of Ekiti to deepen development, expand opportunity, and support continued progress in the state.