The Lagos State chapter of the People’s Democratic Party held its state congress last week. It produced a former Lagos State Commissioner of Commerce, Philip Olabode Aivoji, as the new chairman. However, the result of the congress conducted by Bayelsa State Governor, Douye Diri, has attracted severe criticisms from stakeholders who alleged manipulations and outright rigging of the exercise. In this interview with MAYOWA SAMUEL, Aivoji explains that there was no loser and all Lagos PDP members are winners. He expressed his resolve to pilot the party to power in Lagos in 2023. Excerpts:
Congratulations on your victory. How will you describe the election and your eventual victory?
There will soon be swearing in but I’m on the move now putting people together to unite everyone sort of. As far as this congress was concerned, we are all winners in the PDP family and there is no single loser. We are all winners, we must come together and form a common front to face APC and win the state.
What are your thoughts regarding Segun Adewale’s claim that the chairman of the electoral committee, Governor Douye Diri of Bayelsa State deceived delegates after he allegedly went back on an agreement to adopt a consensus candidate?
There is no consensus in democracy. In PDP, if there’s going to be a consensus, it has to be an agreement between all parties, not a few people coming up and wanting to impose candidates on the people. That is what we explained to Diri right there at the venue that nobody consulted the aspirants about consensus. We are stakeholders, so nobody should leave us out and say they have agreed on a consensus that will not work. We told them clearly, if we don’t allow this congress to be, that means you are not ready to win because people will move out en masse from the party and they can even join the Third Force and others. So, the chairman of the committee agreed with us that he didn’t know that we were not consulted. He allowed the congress to go on, it was free and fair, as far as we can see. The people that are complaining now, they are in charge of everything, the caretaker belongs to them, the people working belong to them, everything belongs to them but to the glory of God, the people at the grassroots are the people I connect myself with, and they came together without collecting any amount from me. Usually, a congress like this, you give them money but they just came on their own. It was open and it shows that the voice of the people is the voice of God. If they have any complaint, they should lodge their complaints to the appeal panel, they will look into it, and we will move on. As far as we are concerned, we have the victory, everyone has the victory but no winner, no vanquish.
“Even Tinubu knows that if I’m given the opportunity, I’m going to face them head on. We were at the party before he came and we all knew what happened when Sarumi brought him and so on”
With you in the saddle now, is it now a certainty that PDP will take over Lagos come 2023?
That is why I threw my hat in the ring. I am experienced, I’ve been in politics since the UPN days, even in SDP. I’ve helped so many governorship aspirants. I’ve helped the likes of Funsho Williams. Even Tinubu knows that if I’m given the opportunity, I’m going to face them head on. We were at the party before he came and we all knew what happened when Sarumi brought him and so on. So, this is about reaching out to the grassroots, so I’m a grassroots man, I told them, I’m not going to sit in office. We are going to tour the entire 245 wards, and let us see who the masses will vote for. They’ve been sitting comfortably. Some leaders who cannot even win their units, they are imposing people on others, that has not helped us. The policy that we know of is the policy of exercising our franchise.
Usually, this congress is supposed to be a congress that is lively, with music, dancing everywhere and whoever wins will greet others and whoever loses, we accommodate. I’ve told them, it is their victory, there is no one that will lose out from my administration, everyone will be accommodated, because we need to study where some of them are good because everyone has what God has endowed in him or her and we are going to explore those aspects, we’ll put round pegs in round holes and make sure that we defeat APC clearly in all our outings. I’ve never rigged an election before, if you are in majority, no one can rig you out. This is just a tip of the iceberg of what we are going to do when I start my work fully by the grace of God.
