Onyekachi Eze ABUJA 
E
do State governor, Godwin Obaseki said ideology does not exist in Nigerian politics.
Obaseki who was until last Monday a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), joined the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Friday. He was at the PDP national secretariat on Saturday for screening for next Thursday’s governorship primary.
The governor told journalists after his screening that from his experience in the past four years as governor, ideological divide does not exist.
“I think the focus for me is development. Whether you are a conservative or a progressive, it is expected that the outcome should be development. And unfortunately, I get a bit confused in the APC that at some point, I was being accused of not sharing the money.
“When we were campaigning against PDP, we said that the problem there was that they were sharing the money.
“So as a progressive or as a conservative, my ideology is about the people, getting the people to enjoy the benefits of democracy,” Obaseki stated.
The Governor who was among four aspirants screened for the PDP ticket, said his aspiration enjoys national support.
According to him, even elder statesmen who are apolitical, the traditional rulers and people from different spectrum of the society have solidaritised with him.
“I think Nigerians are generally fair minded people. They are people who do not accept injustice.
“From what I have seen over the past several weeks and months, the support is just across the board. It is not just from APC governors alone,” he added.
He described the screening exercise as fair and “very professionally done,” adding that the committee was objective.
Obaseki said he presented all his certificates, including the contentious higher school, university and National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) discharged certificates, to the screening committee.
“They can look at it and see if there are inconsistencies in them, and you can ask the screening committee if there are any inconsistencies in any of them,” he stated.
The governor assured that the PDP June 25 primary would not be acrimonious, adding that “there are common grounds, common interest and I am very hopeful that I will get it even as there are quite number of delegates for the exercise.
“I am speaking with all the aspirants. My hope and purpose for the PDP is to have a united and very strong party.
“Party primary should not be divisive because we as a party are focused on the same objective, and because we are separate individuals, our approaches may be different.”
