Despite my disqualification, I will remain in PDP to ensure victory in Osun guber election —Oladipo, ex-PDP national scribe

Professor Adewale Oladipo is a former national secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He speaks to DARE ADEKANMBI on his disqualification to contest for the post of the deputy national chairman (South) at this week’s Convention of the party, Osun State governorship election, among others.

 

Did you see your disqualification coming?

Yes, I saw it coming. I have been joking with some members of our party in Osun State over the last one week that it has been in the public domain that certain people were not comfortable with my candidature. They said it clearly that I would be screened out. I thought it was impossible, but then it became a reality. Actually I spoke to people who are close to me and I said I was not going for the screening because I hate ‘arrangee’ things. I like people to be straightforward. We spoke to senior members of the party and they said I should go for the screening and see how it goes. And lo and behold, about 10 minutes to my appearance before the screening committee, somebody brought a petition and hurriedly gave it to them. Up till now, I have not been privileged to read the petition. One member of the panel just said, ‘Prof, when you were national secretary there was this convention in Port Harcourt in 2016. You ought to have stopped immediately acting as the national secretary.’ I replied the person as follows: One, why would anybody wait for five years before bringing this up? Two, I was the national secretary and we convened the Port Harcourt Convention which was the function of the national chairman then, Ali Modu Sheriff, and on the eve of the convention, they held meetings and I was not invited. As the national secretary, I had a major function to perform at the convention. All of a sudden, the national chairman called me and said he was calling off the convention because some senior members of the party were in Abuja and were not ready to go to Port Harcourt for the convention. So, what did they expect me to do? I left Port Harcourt and returned to Abuja. So, whatever litigation came out of that was in the discharge of my duty as the national secretary of the party. Don’t forget, I was duly elected at the Eagles Square convention for a term of four years after acting for about a year and two months. If you want me to quit as national secretary, you will call me to sit down with you and there is a process. You don’t just gather a few people and say you have removed somebody. You don’t remove people like that. So, if that is the basis for barring me from contesting this election, there is no problem, but of course I know there is more to it than has been said. I am not one of those who are said to have taken the party to court for the convention. I was fully prepared for the convention.

My life is simple and straightforward. If they had simply called me to say they are not comfortable with my being the deputy national chairman (south) because they have other ideas, I would just give glory to God. When there was a Supreme Court decision that we should vacate office, I went back to Ife and was received like a hero. I went to church for thanksgiving. My life is not complicated. I am a professor. I am not a jobless, migratory or nomadic politician. The funny thing is that when former Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola was removed as national secretary, he went to court. He eventually left the party and later returned to the party and we welcomed him with open arms.

Why should we at this stage be playing politics of exclusion? People who did not stay with us in the PDP, went to some other parties and they came back and got vantage positions in governance. They are now the ones persecuting those who stayed in the party. But then, I don’t want to overheat the polity. I am not interested in fighting anybody. I am more focused on winning the gubernatorial election for PDP in Osun State next year. My ambition is not to stay perpetually in Wadata Plaza. I have been there. If you want to serve and the organisation says you can’t serve, you don’t push it if your intention is really to serve. You move on and that is exactly what I am going to do. I will never leave PDP. I am not like the nomadic politicians who will leave and return. Nobody can chase me away from PDP.

 

What does the decision to disqualify you and others portend for efforts to rebuild the party?

Ordinarily, we are supposed to build on our gains now and come together and be united. I have no problem with the leadership. I have been the national secretary of the party and after the national chairman, the next sensitive position is that of the national secretary. The deputy national chairman whether for North or South has no specific role. So, I don’t see why I should be fighting over exclusion from that. But I can assure you I will go back to Osun and work very hard to make sure a popular aspirant emerges the candidate of the PDP and will work even harder to make sure the person wins the election. I come from a high voting area which is Ife and Ife is probably the most important area in terms of electoral value in Osun State. We have built the party to be a solid platform there. We are going to build on this to make sure we win the governorship election. By the time we win the election, we will come back stronger and will go up higher by the special grace of God.

I have been talking to others that were disqualified. I am a senior member of the party. I understand their grievances as well. But PDP is bigger than all of us, be you former president, former governor and former NWC member and Nigeria is greater than us as well. We need to salvage this country. We need to provide an alternative platform to the ruling APC and personal sacrifices will have to be made. I urge them to see their disqualification as contribution to growing the PDP as a political force that can regain power at the national level. We don’t need to overheat the polity. If there was a court case during my time as national secretary, I was the symbol of the party then until the Supreme Court pronounced otherwise and it was not a case between me and PDP.  They are just trying to call a dog a bad name so as to hang it. I have been in PDP for 20 years and will not leave the party. PDP was in government and maybe we had our shortcomings, but Nigerians have seen the difference now. Nigerians won’t forgive us if we don’t make this sacrifice for the PDP to come back to power. We should not cut our nose to spite our face. I am not jobless. I have a second address and even a third address. We should not be distracted.

 

Are you now going to ask those supporting you to switch to the side of Oyinlola?

Human beings are not sheep that you will just say because I am out, they should go and vote for another person. People have their brains. The structure in Osun is solidly behind me and at least four states in the South-West. It is a large electoral pool. We will look at what is best for the party and will take a decision before the convention. If the position comes to Osun, I will be happy. But if it does not come, Alihamdulilahi. By the time PDP wins Osun next year, it will be a different ball game because our governor will also be among those taking decisions at the PDP Governors’ Forum.

 

Some PDP members are in court in Osun asking for the dissolution of the State Working Committee…

Well, I pray that the authorities that are barring people from contesting will take note of that.

 

Will this not be injurious to whatever plans the party is making towards the guber election next year?

The structure can’t be dismantled because it is legally put in place for a term of four years. We had ward congress in 215 wards and the remaining ward executives will have served out their tenure by March 2022. We can’t continue to truncate people’s mandate. We are trying to grow Nigeria’s democracy. Truncating people’s tenure is not the best way to grow a democracy. I am sure those people are going to serve out their tenure, whether they are my friends or not. I don’t care. They were elected for four years. The agitators are in the minority. We will console and integrate them into the party. More importantly, by the time our governorship candidate emerges, I am sure we all are committed to the PDP to the extent that we will all line up behind the person and the candidate will be elected the governor of Osun.

 

Are we likely to see a repeat of Senator Ademola Adeleke versus Ogunbiyi scenario at the primary?

I am sure we won’t have a repeat of that. The Ogunbiyi and Adeleke thing came very close to the primary. The party structure led by Honourable Adagunodo queued up behind Ogunbiyi. Some of us queued up behind Adeleke and we still defeated the party structure. But this time round, most of the leaders who matter in the party are solidly behind Adeleke. And we recollect that Adeleke won that election and Nigerians know this. I am happy my friends in the ruling APC in Osun today admit to that fact privately. Adeleke has this level of sympathy that is overwhelming in Osun State right now. Personally, I am backing him and will do so during the primary. I am very positive he will emerge our candidate. We will not make the mistake of leaving anybody behind. Immediately he emerges, we will make sure we bring everybody on board, including the few people that are aggrieved for one reason or the other. There will be no winner-takes-all. When you practise winner-takes-all, you lose elections. When you practise politics of exclusion and you are afraid of somebody defeating your candidate at the Convention and you exclude the person, you are not helping the party. We will not make that mistake. If Ogunbiyi or anybody wants to contest against Adeleke, they are free to do so. The party structure must give them a level-playing field so that anybody who loss gallantly and honestly will not grumble. But when you start excluding people because you don’t like their faces or you feel their presence is detrimental to your ulterior motive, then you are weakening yourself. We must not weaken the PDP structure in Osun. The super structure must be strengthened through politics of inclusion, not exclusion.

 

People would say PDP gave a strong fight in Osun in 2018 because Mr Rauf Aregbesola who was quitting the scene had issues with workers’ salaries and all that. But the man who succeeded him has been paying salaries and winning plaudits and carving a niche for himself. He said recently that he has never borrowed a penny to run the state…

He has not tarred a single kilometre of road either. He has not built any hospital. I pay the salaries of my staff also. Is paying salary an achievement? Is the governor elected just to pay salaries? Then you don’t need a governor, just appoint an accountant or a cashier for the state to be paying salaries. It means we won’t need the governor and his long convoy. A governor is not elected to pay salaries. That is a normal thing. After all, the Bible says a labourer deserves his wages. Anybody counting salary payment as an achievement needs attention sincerely. A governor must prepare his state for industrial revolution. We don’t produce anything in Osun State. Our state can’t join the VAT war because we don’t generate much in Osun. If we join the VAT war dogmatically, we will lose because we are collecting money that we don’t event generate. That is the truth. We need to grow the revenue base of the state. We need to indutrialise the state and put good roads in place. There is no pipe-borne water in Osun again since Oyinlola left. Everybody now drill borehole and if you don’t have money you sink a well. Is that modern living? Why should we go back to 100 years ago when people were digging well? At this age? No waterworks because all of them have been destroyed, including the mini waterworks that Oyinlola built all over the state. Look at what is happening to the pensioners. They are always demonstrating because their pension is not paid.

By the special grace of God, the PDP will govern the state. We were supposed to be there in 2018, but you know the Nigerian factor that came in. This time, we are more determined and focused. Whatever little problems we have in the party, we have internal mechanism of resolving them. We will activate this mechanism and resolve the problems. Most importantly, we will make sure we don’t harbour moles. In the last election, we harboured a lot of moles. But we are trying to clean the system so that we don’t harbour moles this time round.

 

Before the disqualification, how were you finding your consultation and networking across the country to clinch the position?

Nothing comes easy, especially competitive politicking. It is always a tough thing to do. But I have a passion for it. I have been there before and the most important thing is that I have the support of the people in Osun State chapter. The job is really simplified by that. Two, you know that is Osun, we have quite a number of elected officials in the National Assembly. I am very close to them because I am part of the party’s structure in Osun. These people were doing a lot on my behalf. Lastly, as a former national secretary of the party, I remain a life member of the Board of Trustees and NEC. I don’t miss these meetings and I always attend promptly. I serve on committees. So, all these gave me leverage in terms of being a familiar face in the party. I have never left PDP for one second. I joined the party in 2001 and since then I have been in the party. To the glory of God, I am a stable politician and I don’t jump ship even when the ship is rocking. So, there was a sense of continuity and trust. People know I have stayed with the party when the going was tough. So, I received a lot of sympathy from people, who are also very stable with the party, even leaders across geopolitical zones. So, this really simplified the job for me.