A former Minister of Works and a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, Sen. Adeseye Ogunlewe, in this interview with BAYO AKINLOYE, speaks on the crisis rocking the PDP in Lagos over the governorship primary that produced Jimi Agbaje as the candidate for the 2015 governorship election in the state. Is it true that the Peoples Democratic Party is making efforts to reconcile with a former Minister of State for Defence, Amb. Musiliu Obanikoro, and others who are aggrieved with the party’s hierarchy in Lagos over the outcome of the recently held governorship primary in the state?
Yes, that’s true. The leadership has invited all the aspirants that participated in the PDP governorship primary in Lagos. It is not just about Musiliu Obanikoro being singled out, all the aspirants are involved...
So far, how many of the aggrieved PDP members has the party been able to reconcile now?
Almost all of them; they are all willing to contribute to the progress of the PDP as a whole and they are committed to ensuring the electoral success of the party in Lagos in 2015. They were receptive to the meeting we called and we have extended a hand of fellowship once again to them. From the look of things, the Lagos PDP will remain one big family. There is no cause for alarm. We are united in our mission, notwithstanding individual differences.
Is Obanikoro among these party members who are willing to ensure the party remains united?
He was not part of the meeting. There is no sign he wants reconciliation. He has gone to court already. Obviously, he is not agreeable to the reconciliation moves by the party hierarchy.
Is the party not making further efforts to placate him?
Party leaders have been talking to him – even President Goodluck Jonathan, the Senate President, David Mark, and others have been talking to him on the need to be in tune with the party. We will see how it goes.
It was alleged that you and Bode George ganged up against Obanikoro. How true is that?
That is not true. If you are running a political party and you want to field a credible candidate, you will have to assess the qualities of the people under consideration and weigh the options: what are the pluses of this aspirant and the minuses of that aspirant? Then, you also listen to what people say: who are they rooting for to represent them in the election? Or else, the party will end up producing a candidate who is a loser before the real election. Besides, Jimi Agbaje defeated Obanikoro. What else does Obanikoro want?
But he alleged some form of rigging. For instance, he claimed that number of total votes cast was more than the number of delegates approved to vote during the primary?
That is not correct. When it was discovered that some statutory delegates were not accommodated, all the agents, including the aspirants who were in the hall (venue), agreed that they (additional delegates) should vote. They are still living. Are they ghosts? Are they external people? They all have names. Are they not members of the party? It was not an external election; we can publicise the names of the delegates who voted in the primary. If there were names unknown to him, why didn’t he say so there? All the delegates that voted were not external people; they were executive members of all the Local Government Areas.
Now that Obanikoro has gone to court to challenge the process leading to the conduct of the primary, what is PDP going to do?
We are praying that he shouldn’t withdraw the lawsuit. Let him go ahead and sue the party. We are going to present before the court all the facts. We are not bothered about that. We are in court with him; we have filed a counter affidavit.
If the PDP had anything against him, why was he allowed to contest in the primary?
There is no way we could have disqualified him; we are not the court. The court will make that decision. One thing we know is that Obanikoro is not electable. That is why majority of the delegates voted for Agbaje.
Recently, you described Obanikoro as not being respectful to the elders especially in the party. What exactly did you mean?
Can you imagine Obanikoro beating his chest that he is bigger than anybody in the party and that all the meetings we were holding were illegal meetings? He keeps bragging, pushing himself against the party leadership. That is the problem.
Don’t you think that if he is not placated before the 2015 governorship election, the PDP may once again lose out to the All Progressives Congress due to his large following in Lagos?
Who are his followers? Area boys? What does he have to offer?
Are you saying Obanikoro, being aggrieved, will not in any way affect the chances of Agbaje in the election?
Responsible people know that Agbaje is better than him; they will vote for Agbaje. Let the area boys follow Obanikoro, if they wish.
Are you saying Lagos PDP does not need the votes of those on the streets?
No. You need to understand this: Obanikoro is used to fomenting trouble. He encourages violence. The area boys being mentioned are not the ordinary people on the streets. The people on the streets are law-abiding and they carry on their daily activities without rancour or violence, unlike Obanikoro’s area boys.
Don’t you think this issue might result in mass defection in Lagos PDP?
What mass defection? Who is Obanikoro? Where is he coming from? Does he have a single supporter in the PDP? He came from the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (now APC). Remember? And when he joined the PDP, he did not bring a single supporter. Perhaps, all the bitterness he is currently expressing is a bid by him to get another appointment after losing in the governorship primary. He adds no electoral value to the party.
Will you, however, agree that he has a right to express his grievances against the party?
I do agree with you on that; he does have a right to express his grievances against the party. But, let me state it clearly that his expression of whatever grievances he has against PDP has a limit. Did he try to exhaust the party processes to ensure a resolution of the issues he raised? There is an appeal panel; he did not seek any redress from them. He just went to the court to sue the party. That is indiscipline. We have other hierarchies in the party which he could have approached but he did not. For goodness sake, this is a party issue. He did not need to go to the court. The matter could have been dealt with internally. It is simply an internal matter.
But if he begs to return to the fold, will he be accepted?
Yes, he will be accepted; he is one of us. He is a brother. But, is he the only one in the party? He has benefitted a lot from the party. He was an ambassador; he was a minister. He has a relationship with all of us. All that is happening currently boils down to indiscipline. What is happening is simply a party matter that all of us can sit down and talk over. The party is supreme — he can’t place himself above it. The party does not belong to a single person. We should all subject ourselves to it. Why is he stretching his luck? He is acting as if he is part of the opposition. We are seeing traces of the opposition in him.
What exactly did you mean by ‘showing traces of the opposition’?
The handwriting is on the wall; he was sponsoring weaker aspirants to the extent that the primary will end up presenting a weaker candidate but he was not successful in that regard. If he had the interest of the party at heart, he would not do that kind of thing — sponsoring governorship aspirants just to weaken the chances of the PDP in the 2015 governorship election. If he is not for the party, then he is against the party. If you are working against the party, you are as good as being in the opposition.
Culled from Punch
No comments :
Post a Comment