Tinubu Has Already Secured Victory’: Governor Uzodimma Tasks Nigeria’s Opposition to Build Grassroots Structures

Imo State Governor Hope Uzodimma has asserted that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has fully earned the right to seek a second term in office, pointing to the administration's policy achievements and deep grassroots support.

Addressing correspondents directly on Saturday after participating in the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential primary election at his native Omuma ward in Oru East Local Government Area, Uzodimma seized the opportunity to issue a sharp challenge to the country's struggling opposition formations. The governor insisted that if rival parties ever hope to realistically challenge the ruling APC in future polls, they must abandon cosmetic politics, strengthen their internal administrative structures and commit to rigorous grassroots mobilization strategies.

Uzodimma attributed the heavy voter turnout and visibility recorded across the Southeast region to the APC’s multi-tiered electronic membership registration and validation process. This open-source strategy, according to the governor, successfully eliminated traditional barriers to participation and significantly boosted localized confidence in the party's democratic processes. To underscore the sheer scale of the party's regional mobilization, the governor revealed that his single ward in Oru East had successfully processed and registered more than 35,000 distinct voters.

The governor made it clear that the sheer numerical weight of the ruling party's baseline support places the opposition at a severe structural disadvantage.

"From the electronic membership registration to the validation process, the APC has shown absolute seriousness in involving people at the grassroots," Governor Uzodimma stated. "What we are seeing today is the direct result of that systematic inclusiveness. If only verified APC members turn out to vote for President Bola Tinubu, he has already secured victory, because everyday Nigerians fundamentally believe in what his administration is executing."

While acknowledging that a vibrant opposition remains a constitutional necessity in any thriving democracy, Uzodimma stressed that public trust cannot be won through press releases alone, urging rival factions to replicate the ruling party's field work.

"There absolutely cannot be a democracy without an opposition, but opposition parties must work significantly harder and actively emulate the institutional commitment shown by the ruling party," Uzodimma added. "When they put in the required structural work, then their time will come when they too can produce a president."

Expressing long-term optimism regarding Nigeria's overall macroeconomic trajectory, Uzodimma concluded that while current fiscal adjustments have introduced unavoidable short-term friction, the structural reforms pushed by the Tinubu administration are steadily yielding clear indicators of structural stability and growth.