As controversy dogs the coming governorship primary election in Ekiti State’s Peoples Democratic Party, following Governor Ayo Fayose’s open endorsement of his deputy, Prof. Kolapo Olusola-Eleka, attention is now being focused on the stand of the state’s PDP leadership in the midst of the crisis. In this interview with GBENGA SODEHINDE, the state’s PDP Chairman, Barrister Gboyega Oguntuwase, addresses the issue. Excerpts:
How are you coping with the emergence of a factional leader of PDP in the state?
No, there is no faction whatsoever. I am the PDP chairman in Ekiti. I will not smear the image of anybody and I don’t want to label anybody a rebel because, the rebel we see today may eventually become a very loyal party man tomorrow. But, of course, I will mention this. The Buruji (Kashamu) group used one Williams from Ilejemeje Local Government to consistently challenge us but the futility of using Williams became very clear when I visited his Ilejemeje Local Government and virtually everybody left their homes to welcome me as the PDP chairman. And I then asked: where is he controlling? When he cannot control his ward, his local government, his units, and all are still being controlled by my leadership, do you call that a chairman? Majority of the people that matter in PDP in the state are in this PDP that I lead, just as we have majority of the people that matter supporting the Makarfi leadership group then. Any other group is just a very minute group and you can only notice it on individuality and not as a major group that can even win a local government, in case of any election.
I am a PDP chairman that wants to win an election by every legitimate means, and fighting a man who dismantled two incumbent Governors, when you are about facing an election, is a very unreasonable thing to do. Just as I don’t want to fight Governor Fayose, I don’t also want to fight any PDP man
You have just set up a primary election committee in Ekiti State; how free, fair and credible is the election going to be?
I have said this and I am still going to emphasise it now. If anybody is doubting our coming primary election, it is like doubting the existence of day and night. We have said it very clearly when the stakeholders were endorsing the Deputy Governor, Olusola Eleka. I was called upon to talk and I told them as the party chairman that we were going to organise the mandatory constitutional primary. That is the only way that the best can emerge; the best in terms of popularity, the best in terms of acceptability, the best in terms of nearness to the party and love for the party, Ekiti State and Nigeria in general. We have said that every desiring contestant should put up a letter of intent to contest, signed by 10 leaders of PDP in each of the 16 local government areas. Once your letter of intent is signed by these leaders in each of the 16 local government areas, then you have passed the test of endorsement. You don’t need to be endorsed by the President of Nigeria or any Governor and you must present an affidavit that you have never been condemned or imprisoned and that you are not standing trial in any criminal offence and you must show us evidence of tax clearance for the past three years; and once you have done that, you can leave the rest to us. We are going to conduct the primary for all, and it will be free and fair.
How much is your nomination form?
We will tell them at the right time; let us know how many people will contest first by seeing their completed letters of intents.
Is it true that you and Governor Fayose have imposed the Deputy Governor, Olusola Eleka, on the party as governorship candidate?
Nobody has imposed anybody, and when Eleka was endorsed by the stakeholders, I told them that there would still be primary. Can I, on the one hand, endorse a man, and on the other hand declare that there shall be primary election? I refuse to sign any endorsement for anybody as far as I am concerned. I have never endorsed anybody and have never openly campaigned for anybody who has been endorsed or who is not endorsed; and we have democratised the issue of endorsement and that is why we have told them that 10 people per local government should endorse them. What else do they want? As far as I am concerned, these people may even lack the locus standi to complain because, up till now, there is no prima facie evidence before the party that they are interested in contesting; because the conditions precedent to contesting have not been met by many of them. That is, writing their letter of intent to the party and ensuring that it is duly signed by 10 leaders of the party across the local government areas.
Now that other aspirants have declared war, as it were, that there is going to be imposition, how are you bringing them together and reconciling them?
I don’t know of any aspirant that has declared war. All of them still say PDP is their party, and if you say PDP is your party, the authentic chairman of the party in the state is Barrister Gboyega Oguntuwase. So you cannot approbate and reprobate. If you are a member of the PDP, you must submit yourself to the leadership of the party chairman, and my leadership is determined for a free and fair primary election. If anybody is angry over anything, let them express it after they have submitted their letters of intent. All these things you are seeing, protests or whatever, they are just natural and normal reaction from people, put together, who are desperately lobbying for Governor Fayose’s endorsement.
What can you say about Prince Dayo Adeyeye, Senator Abiodun Olujimi, Amb. Dare Bejide, Owoseni Ajayi and the rest of them that are seriously protesting against the endorsement of Eleka?
I have always told them that the right place to protest is at the party. You will tell the party that you are against a particular thing and the party will look at it to see whether that thing which you complained about is actually a stumbling block to you or is depriving you your fundamental right to contest. We have told them on several occasions; come with your letter of intent, and up till now, some still believe that going to radio and newspapers will solve it. If they have personal issues with the Governor, let them go and settle it. You don’t bring the party to such issues. The party is different from the government; it is very different. Fayose is the head of the Government in the state while I head the party here. As for all those people you have mentioned, my opinion about them is the opinion I have about all PDP members. I am a child of God. I pray collectively for all PDP members and, once they are members of the PDP, they can be sure of my prayers. So don’t bring me to an issue that I am not connected with.
You see, my problem with some of them is concerning the first term of Governor Fayose when I was the Commissioner for Information. When Fayose was removed from office, virtually all commissioners stopped talking, but I kept on addressing press conferences and I kept on defending my ‘General’. To them, it was only a dummy or a stupid man who could have done such a thing. But they have forgotten that God said that in time of sorrow and laughter, you should associate with your people; that is what I have done. My position at that time was different from my position now as PDP chairman. At that point in time as commissioner for information, I was telling them that you didn’t have to condemn a man that you had not tried; and up till today, all cases against Governor Peter Ayodele Fayose for which people wanted to impeach him, have failed. But our position now is to do justice among contestants for the governorship ticket.
So, everybody that is fighting today should learn from the TKO (Aluko) example, that if you think we are fighting today, the fight may again end tomorrow. So how do you explain all the wild allegations you had made against one another? As the chairman, I will refrain completely from saying anything against any PDP member
But some people are saying that you are like a toothless bulldog, who is only a rubber-stamp in the hands of Governor Fayose…
As far as I am concerned, they want a chairman who will start exchanging words with the Governor. I have not seen any sufficient reason why I should pick up a fight with the Governor. I am a PDP chairman that wants to win an election by every legitimate means, and fighting a man who dismantled two incumbent Governors, when you are about facing an election, is a very unreasonable thing to do. Just as I don’t want to fight Governor Fayose, I don’t also want to fight any PDP man. Dare Bejide is my friend; he is a lawyer, I am a lawyer. Olujimi is my sister; we served under Fayose together in the first term and she has organised programmes in her Omuo hometown, which I have attended. If I didn’t love her, I would not risk my life to those programmes she organised. Dayo Adeyeye is also my friend; we attended Annunciation Secondary School, Ikere-Ekiti together, and he got married to a princess who I could best describe as my sister. Who again? Owoseni Ajayi is also my very good friend who we served together under Fayose. You know, the other problem I have with them is that none of them can bribe me with any money. They have a chairman that they know his price. They just want me to change cause and join them in abusing Fayose, so that they will start calling me a radical and a purposeful man. I cannot be bribed by anybody. I cannot be persuaded to start abusing a man that has not done me any wrong. I cannot be persuaded to do the battle of another person. As far as I am concerned, all of them are protected by this party in so much as the issue can be solved by the party; you don’t take it to press. That is the major problem. Patriotism means you exhaust all the internal machineries within the party to settle whatever disagreement you have with the party, before going to the press. So, as far as I am concerned, I have nothing against them.
So, what is your impression of the former state secretary of the party, Dr. T.K.O Aluko, who had a disagreement with Governor Fayose and pitched his tent with the governor’s enemies, and now, he is back to the party?
Yes, I am still expecting every person that is fighting with us to come, like TKO did. When TKO was angry, he was speaking all over, and that is the danger of talking to the press against a man that has not done you any harm or against a man that tomorrow, you could iron out all these matters with. You see, when TKO was angry, he spoke with Channels TV, he spoke with AIT, he spoke with all kinds of newspapers and everybody. But today, he knows that there is no place like home and he has come back to us and he has not offended any of us by what happened in the past. He was here in my office last week and we were all happy celebrating and enjoying ourselves. I will also visit him in his home very soon. I have told him that he should organise a very big political rally in his Iyin hometown, that I want to be a part it.
So, everybody that is fighting today should learn from the TKO example, that if you think we are fighting today, the fight may again end tomorrow. So how do you explain all the wild allegations you had made against one another? As the chairman, I will refrain completely from saying anything against any PDP member.
In 2019, what do you expect?
I want the total removal and uprooting of the APC government. The APC at the federal level should be uprooted and be replaced with a PDP government. That is what I expect and that is what will happen. People like Archbishop Olubunmi Okogie said people are unhappy with APC and Buhari because of hunger and lack of trust. Those two fundamental issues cannot be solved by the APC government. People are angry because they are hungry, because they have been betrayed.
The APC keep on lying every day, and the people are tired of them. Same way, I will appeal to the Ekiti people never to allow or vote for APC in Ekiti state, because their antecedent has shown that they don’t love the Ekiti people.
Who do you see as the next President of this country come 2019?
I am not a seer, neither am I a prophet; so I have not received such revelation.
But your Governor keeps on saying God has told him that he is the next President of the
country
If the Governor had said that, maybe he had better revelation or, probably, he had received a particular message concerning this. But what I have heard him say is that he would be the President of Nigeria at the fixed
time.
