Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has reiterated the call for a power shift to the southern part of the country.
Sanwo-Olu, who spoke with journalists after submitting his expression of interest and nomination forms at the International Conference Centre, Abuja, said the call was in tandem with the need to ensure justice and equity in the polity.
The governor, whose bid for a second term in office was recently endorsed by party stakeholders in Lagos State, led by the presidential aspirant of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, said: “We believe so and I think that it is fair and just. But it is really about Nigeria.
“There are aspirations everywhere and there are so many qualified people, but for equity and fairness, I think it is morally fair that it goes to that part and South-West is top-notch in that. We believe that our position from those meetings is still very valid and everybody must consider it.”
He said the meeting of South-West presidential aspirants on the APC platform was in the best interest of the zone.
He expressed confidence that APC aspirants from the zone would strive towards achieving the goal of settling for a consensus candidate at the presidential primaries of the party.
“You should have asked what was the objective? Did we achieve the objective of that meeting? The answer is yes. We needed to have ourselves in the room, lock up ourselves and have a frank conversation, which we did.
“Are we going to have further conversation with the leadership? Yes, I believe so. So, we are not fed up; we were sincere with ourselves and we hope that in future engagement, all the aspirations we have in the region will come to pass,” he said.
Sanwo-Olu, who expressed satisfaction over his performance in the last three years, assured that he would take Lagos State to a greater height if re-elected.
He noted: “We have done almost three years in office and it has been three years of monumental changes that we have in the state and by the way, we still have another year to complete that first four years’ tenure.
“So, our confidence is premised on the fact that we’ve received tremendous support from the citizens of Lagos. We have been opportune to put in place a robust economic agenda that has propelled all of the various interventions we have in Lagos.
“In fact, if I start rolling them here, we will be here till tomorrow but in all phases of life, we have touched our citizens; in transportation, education, health, housing, good governance, provision of basic amenities but more importantly, in security for our people.”
